-By Sarah Hoyt First let me point out no one beats me. Not literally. For those of you who’ve read Athena (Darkship Thieves) this should not be an incredible surprise. The title is denoting of the relationship existing in traditional publishing between the writer and the publishing house. It is also the sort of thing... Continue Reading →
What drives Writers to write?
Rowena here ... Following on from Dave and Amanda's posts, I came across Chuck Wendig doing his 25 things on the topic of Self Publishing. You have to hand it to Chuck, he doesn't pull his punches. It's funny how things come together. Over the weekend I was on a panel where we writers... Continue Reading →
Run Away! We’re all doomed!
By Dave Freer RUUUUUUN! The water main has burst under the instant mashed potato factory... or something of that sort. Oddly several people seem to think that I am about to be overwhelmed by vast gurpling seas of fake mashed potato and that Ewan Morrison is just the fellow to tell me to run to... Continue Reading →
Who is the keymaster and where is the gatekeeper?
by Amanda S. Green No, I'm not talking about Ghostbusters. Although it might be time to watch the movie again. This post has been bubbling around, trying to take form for several weeks. Kate's post this past Sunday, and the comments to it, brought it to life. A little background first. When I first got... Continue Reading →
The voices in my head are driving me crazy!
by Amanda S. Green I want to start today's post with fingers crossed and good thoughts for everyone in the path of Hurricane Irene. Keep your head down and stay safe. I'm hip-deep in work not only for NRP but my own writing as well. Because of that, it often becomes difficult to turn off... Continue Reading →
Clocking Out
by Chris McMahon After a furious period of activity finishing off and revising the draft of my new SF novel, Foreign Elements, I have taken a week off writing. I feel nervous just writing that! The main reason is I have been experiencing a variety of unpleasant symptoms ranging from vertigo and nausea to missed heartbeats.... Continue Reading →
Editing for the Incompetent
Kate Paulk Namely, me. I'm an extreme pantser, with almost everything emerging from my subconscious. One of the things that's extremely difficult for me is editing: I often simply can't see where there are problems - or worse, I see problems that aren't there, and break things when I try to fix the non-existent problems.... Continue Reading →
Art And Craft — Can This Marriage Be Saved
BY SARAH HOYT As I’ve said before, right now there is a novel dictating itself to me, hampered and slowed only by the time I take away to do research. Why research if the novel is dictating itself? Well, because for me at least, it doesn’t work effortlessly. Actually, I don’t think... Continue Reading →
The Agony of Writing that Cover Blurb!
It happened - the thing all writers dread (other than writing the synopsis) - I've been asked to write the cover blurbs for The Outcast Chronicles.I find cover blurbs really hard to write. For one thing they need to be very short. The hard part is not sounding generic, because you break any book down... Continue Reading →
A kind of Magic
By Dave Freer Magic I suppose lies at the heart of fantasy, at least in theory* Science Fiction has at its core (it is a heartless thing, which merely reacts) science, possibly also only in theory. Well, a nod and a wave at science anyway. However Fantasy always has the magic, even if it is... Continue Reading →