>OK, I've been well and truly out of the picture over the last week or so. I could say that I have been kept prisoner in a deep, dark dungeon by an evil overlord - and it might be true if the evil overlord is visible by electron microscope and is portrayed in the press... Continue Reading →
>Romancing the Cliche
>I've done a lot of browsing lately over at TV Tropes, and it's interesting to see how many different ways all sorts of incredibly common tropes get used. Possibly the biggest eye-opener is how much really good fiction uses the exact same worn out old cliches everything else does, proving that it's not the package,... Continue Reading →
>Sarah’s Off —
>to Portugal this morning. Knowing how much she loves to fly -- NOT! -- I'm sure Dan and the boys are dragging her kicking and screaming onto the jet. She's promised to do her best to keep us updated on how the trip is going and will try to post next week at her regular... Continue Reading →
>Time Management for Female Writers
>(Warning, this is tongue in cheek. Male writers are not to feel slighted!)I once heard a highly successful male writer thank his wife for taking care of the children, while he shut himself away in a room and wrote. She brought him his meals and cups of tea and made sure no one bothered him.Believe... Continue Reading →
>Letting go – the post partum blues
>Now speaking of books and stories-as-children I'm the old woman who lived in a shoe (well, silver-bearded old lady living in a miner's boot) with somewhere between 30-40 out and I find myself doing something like the famous "You -yes you - you live here. I KNOW you're one of mine. I'll find out just... Continue Reading →
>Follow the Rules — of Submitting and other fun things
>I'm a little late posting this morning because, miracle of miracles, the dog and cat decided to be nice and wake the rest of the household instead of me. So, without further delay, here goes....Several months ago, the local library asked if I'd be interested in helping start a critique group there. Mind you, it's... Continue Reading →
>The biology revolution
>As some of you know, I am a (semi) retired research scientist in the field of biology. Much, maybe most, biological research is now molecular. Molecular biology started with the deconstruction of a DNA molecule by Watson and Crick in '53, very close to my birth date. The development of PCR in '84 by Mullis... Continue Reading →
>Editors, a learning process.
>Chris McMahon hasn't been able to post today, due to illness, so I've filled in).As a newbie published author I had never worked with an editor before. The first time an editor sent me a book report and asked me to do a rewrite, I was lost. The report was rather nebulous and I didn't... Continue Reading →
>Harry Potter meets Star Trek, or The Fanfic Of Doom
>The comments on Harry Potter as steampunk and a trawl through the crosslinks off Draco in Leather Pants got me to thinking about the fanfiction phenomenon. If you go looking, there's fanfic about just about everything, and it usually invokes Rule 34 somewhere. If you take a trawl through any fanfiction archive, you'll quickly discover... Continue Reading →
>From Whence You Dream
>*Apologies about being late again. I forgot it was Wednesday. Sorry.*Dave mentioned in his post – and I guess we are still in that vein of discontent – that we don’t see much “puzzle” sf. Part of this, I think is because it is so very hard to write. I have a nodding acquaintance with... Continue Reading →