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Archive for January, 2015

From Annihilation to Acceptance

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This week there’s a fascinating piece in The Atlantic by Jeff VanderMeer, author and editor, on the experience of writing:

From Annihilation to Acceptance: A Writer’s Surreal Journey: The author agreed to publish three novels in one year—and then things got weird.

In it, the author details the terrors, trials and triumphs that went into the making of his latest series. Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance make up the Southern Reach trilogy, about “a dysfunctional secret agency called Southern Reach and its efforts to solve the mysteries behind Area X, a strange pristine wilderness.”

I’ve had this series on my books to read list and now plan to bump them up to the top. For more on the books, including sample chapters and links to retailers, or on the author, check out the links above.

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Writers, If You Are Feeling Old…

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 26, 2015| 1 Comment »

Here’s an encouraging article for writers via HuffPost:
New Authors, Fret Not. Most Successful Authors Made Their Mark After 30

The headline sums it up but if this topic interests you it’s worth checking out the attached infographic. It allows you to highlight author age at first published book, at their “breakthrough” book, and also shows a nice timeline of the number of books published before and after death. J.R.R. Tolkien was 46 when The Hobbit was published (also, Nora Roberts is a publishing machine, and I mean that in the best possible way).

So fret not, and keep at it. Because writing well is a skill, and skills take time.

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Researching a UFO Tale?

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , on January 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Want more UFO-logy in your life? Look no further, because almost 130,000 pages of declassified files on UFOs from the U.S. Air Force are now archived and searchable online:

Visit the Black Vault for the Project Blue Book Collection, via io9.com.

Because the truth may still be out there:)

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Vacation on Beautiful Kepler-16b!

Posted in Likes, Science!, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Considering a weekend getaway? Check out travel posters for these new destinations, courtesy of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Kepler Space Telescope.

NASA made travel posters for real exoplanets, and they’re superb
keplertravel

I love the WPA-style presentation and terrific design sense. Want high-resolution versions to call your own? Check out the linked images in the engadget article or go to the NASA PlanetQuest Exoplanet Travel Series and click away.

Kepler-16b, here I come! (Now, where did I put my spacesuit?)

… the ways by which men arrive at knowledge of the celestial things are hardly less wonderful than the nature of these things themselves.

— Johannes Kepler

 

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CC Finlay Named F&SF Editor

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Exciting news via Locus, folks, CC Finlay has been named the new editor at Fantasy & Science Fiction. He succeeds the excellent Gordon Van Gelder, who became the magazine’s editor in 1997 and will continue as publisher.

Will this mean a permanent shift from F&SF’s traditional snail-mail submissions process to e-subs? @ccfinlay sheds some light on the question, and it’s shiny:)

Update: CC Finlay has posted answers to some of our more pressing questions in a new blog post. TL:DR version: e-subs forever! As an international author in favor of increased diversity, this makes me very happy. Also (via Twitter), no simultaneous subs, and currently a minimum 15 days between submissions.

 

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Cleese on Creativity

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 13, 2015| 1 Comment »

There are a lot of books, essays, posts and (no doubt) scratchings on cave walls discussing ways to be more creative. One of the most useful and compact versions I’ve found so far is a talk (via David Farland) by John Cleese, Monty Python funny man and deep thinker on this and other topics.

The video is only ten minutes long but does a terrific job of summarizing the essential requirements one needs to be creative. You don’t have to quit your day job or win a year-long fellowship or even trap your very own Muse. It’s simple really, and not what one might guess when thinking about the problem. We don’t need “more,” we need less. We need boundaries. Specifically, boundaries of time and boundaries of space.

If you’d like to hear Cleese in a longer discussion on the topic, check out his speech from 1991 as well.

Enjoy!

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Speculation on Writing Speculation

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Someone asked me why I write fantasy and science fiction. Even better, the question was posed with the sort of genuine interest and curiosity everyone hopes to hear in a personal question that holds meaning. I gave an involved answer that I won’t repeat here because I’m going to give you a better one:

It’s what I love. So that’s what I do.

It’s that simple, and that complicated:)

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New Anthology Free From Tor.com

Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 7, 2015| 2 Comments »

A new anthology is out for free from Tor.com, and it includes twenty-six of their favorite short stories, novelettes, and novellas from 2014. Tor.com does publish its fiction online, of course, but if you prefer a transportable and handy-to-read format for Kindle, Nook or similar device, you can download the full anthology now for the low, low price of nothing, nada, zip, rien, tipota.

Some of the Best from Tor.com

Enjoy! I know I will:)

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Description of a Work of Art, Possibly Imaginary

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

There’s a very funny piece by Brian Staveley today over at the Tor/Forge blog titled “Three Ekphrastic Dialogues; or NO DUAL WIELDING UNTIL BOOK THREE.” Or at least it would be funny, if it weren’t so true;)

SCENE ONE
Setting: Book One of the Epic Trilogy

In the first scene the WRITER is bright-eyed, fresh-faced, and recently showered, perhaps even wearing a jaunty blazer. The CHARACTER looks confused, wary, even a little frightened.
…
Character: If I have a life of my own, why can’t I shave my…hey! HEY! What the hell just happened?
Writer: Your house burned down. That guy in the black cloak did it.
C: You made him do it.
W: Sorry. Needed an inciting incident.

Apologies to every character I’ve put through the wringer:) See the full post for the hilarious, somewhat potty-mouthed conclusion…

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CC Finlay’s Guest-Edited F&SF, Now Open to E-Subs

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Hello and welcome to 2015. You may remember that back in July I noted that CC Finlay will edit two issues of Fantasy & Science Fiction for this year, and that he will accept electronic submissions. Excellent news! The second of those submission periods is open now through January 15th. For more information, check out his blog post on the subject. Good luck to all who submit!

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