This will shock no one who knows me, but I miiiiiight have a bit of a problem with perfectionism.
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The important thing is to be in love with something.
— Ray Bradbury
Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
A Little Problem
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, keeping it together, not perfect oh well, perfectionism, ray bradbury, write, writing on March 28, 2021| 1 Comment »
Things I Know for Sure
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, #ThingsIKnowForSure, 4, books, creativity, Lord of the Rings, star wars, Thoughts on March 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »
For today, I give you this highly-personalized, certainly particular list of #ThingsIKnowForSure:
- Creativity is what’s important, not how or why or when you do it.
- I eat less when I can taste more.
- My garden deserves better.
- Summer is a montage of awkwardly-placed mosquito bites. Still worth it.
- The world needs a better brand of catnip.
- Sometimes figuring things out is a matter of a good book and a long afternoon. If that doesn’t work, try a walk. Or a stiff drink.
- That thing you don’t want to do is probably exactly what you should do (sorry!)
- Sometimes a day just needs a thunderstorm.
- Tonic and lemonade are good together. Also gin.
- Some days there are just too many choices.
- Touch ID hates me.
- Sometimes you actually do need that ancient laptop you stashed in the closet.
- A good book makes any day better.
- I’m pretty much done letting other people define what’s “good” 🙂
- Star Wars is the best movie ever (#1, now renamed #4 like a child whose parents changed their mind when she was ten years old. Who does that?)
- Lord of the Rings is the best book ever. Even though I don’t read it every year (anymore), the effect it had on my life means that it will remain The Best Book Ever for always and ever and ever.
- Kittens are hard to catch.
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Photo by Henda Watani on Pexels.com
Here on Earth
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, birds, Covid-19, female, isolation, nonfiction, Scarlet tanager, survival on March 26, 2021| Leave a Comment »
This is a lovely piece about a ship, a bird, and making the most of even trying circumstances. It’s a message I think we could all use right about now:)
What a Songbird Lost at Sea Taught Me About Survival | Audubon
She has reminded me that all of us can find ourselves lost. Winds don’t only carry songbirds to sea.
And here, floating atop this undulating unknown, Homeslice reminds me I am still on Earth. There is air and water, light and dark, and there is life in all forms, including restless humans, migrating birds, and the symbiotic methane-fueled fan worms discovered on our trip. Including even the sort-of-living viruses that plague us. We travel the wind, walk on land, float in currents, or remain anchored in sediment. We’re all surviving on this spinning island in the cosmos. And there’s more than one way to survive, even at the bottom of a sea of Mondays.
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Matt Osborne, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
More Notes on Writing
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, @baedelus, Alyssa Wong, creative writing ideas, Dwight V. Swain, Elizabeth Bear, ideas, Sol Stein, writing advice on March 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »
A few days ago I talked about finding ideas, and even better, how to find good ideas. But what comes after that? After a writer sifts through the mountain of “not bad” and “ok” and even “pretty good” ideas and finds the one that is worth investing in, what comes next?
Because that’s what you’re doing, investing your time, energy, creativity, and care into this little story seed. How can you give it the best chance to grow up healthy and strong?
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Elizabeth Bear has a useful piece out about taking ideas to the next level:
A post office box in Schenectady.
“I used to despair of coming up with A Great Idea. Eventually I discovered that the way to make my not-so-great ideas better is to keep asking more complicated questions about them.”
For writing in general (and as previously discussed), a good first step is to check out Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain
Once you’ve done that, what’s next? I moved on to Stein on Writing.
And what do you know, I roughed out notes for that book too. If you’re interested, check out the PDF below!
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And when it comes right down to it, this is some of the best advice on creativity I’ve seen:
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And to be clear, yes, I like sparkle:)
Rainy with a Chance of Taxes
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, #justaddkittens, rainy day on March 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »
What kind of day is it today? Cool, a bit busy, with rain and a chance of taxes. The kind of day where it’s nice to find warmth: a hot beverage, a fleece vest, or kittens, even if they are virtual:
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Kittens not your thing? (Honestly?) Explore.org has dozens of other live cams for you, like NestFlix or ZenCams.
Or puppies. Because who doesn’t like puppies? (Cue obligatorily adorable puppy shot!)
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You’re welcome:)
The Eagles are Coming, The Eagles are Coming!
Posted in Likes, Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, #feistywomen, birds, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, hellcats, migration, Pennsylvania, robustness, Rosalie Edge, The Hobbit on March 22, 2021| 3 Comments »
(Being me, I couldn’t resist a Hobbit reference, but this post is about migratory birds in general. No Goblins allowed!)
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We’ve still got two feet of snow on the lawn but the signs of Spring are everywhere. Melting ice, the smell of skunk in the night, and Canadian teenagers in shorts and T-shirts (it is above freezing, after all). And soon, the birds will be back. Last evening I heard a flock of Canada geese heading for the river, and they aren’t the only avian adventurers heading our way.
If you are interested in the when and where of bird migrations, you’re in luck. From now through the end of May you can track migration forecasts, get location-based alerts, and learn more about what’s happening in Birdlandia.
BirdCast – Bird migration forecasts in real-time
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And as for those eagles, and other birds of prey? Check out this story about a suffragist and bird lover who established Pennsylvania’s Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in 1934. It’s an incredible place, and is why I am lucky enough to know what it’s like to watch from the edge of a stone outcropping while hawks ride the thermals mere feet away.
Breathtaking.
How Mrs. Edge Saved the Birds | Smithsonian Magazine
The abundance of raptors at North Lookout owes a great deal to topography and wind currents, both of which funnel birds toward the ridgeline. But it owes even more to an extraordinary activist named Rosalie Edge, a wealthy Manhattan suffragist who founded Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in 1934. Hawk Mountain, believed to be the world’s first refuge for birds of prey, is a testament to Edge’s passion for birds—and to her enthusiasm for challenging the conservation establishment. Bold and impossible to ignore, she was described by a close colleague as “the only honest, unselfish, indomitable hellcat in the history of conservation.”
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A story from that trip, with recipe:
(adapted from The New York Times Large Type Cookbook)
Notes from my father: Here’s the best story I have about this recipe; this happened at Hawk Mountain. We were there to see the raptor migrations in October. We were camping at a nearby state park and it was freezing, in fact it snowed. We were cooking chakchouka for 4 in a big pan over a Coleman stove. Right near the end of the cooking we picked up the pan to serve everyone and it tipped and spilled a large part of dinner into the dirt. You two were off running around in the woods somewhere, so we both looked at each other and then at dinner in the dirt, looked back at each other, then brushed the dirt off and put it all back in the pan. It was actually still pretty good. You know in statistics “robustness” means that you can violate the rules a lot and the results still hold, so you could say that this is a very robust recipe.
- 3 links Italian sweet sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 Tbs. olive oil
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 1 tomato, diced
- 2 potatoes, diced
- 1 cup water
- Salt and pepper
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- Sauté sausage pieces in a large skillet until browned.
- Add olive oil, onions and garlic and cook 3 minutes.
- Add green pepper, tomato and potatoes and cook 2 minutes longer.
- Add water and allow mixture to simmer, uncovered until potato is tender. Season with salt and pepper.
- Stir in eggs and continue to cook, stirring, until eggs are done, about 2 minutes. Garnish as desired.
Serves 4.
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Consider the Muggles
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, #ConsiderTheMuggles, connection, mail on March 21, 2021| 1 Comment »
I came across this sentence a while back:
“Please bear in mind that Somaliland has no Postal Service”
Think about that.
Forget complaints about the cost of stamps rising by however many cents, or the extra day it took for your first class letter to reach Hawai’i. There are places on Earth with no postal service at all.
Want to mail a letter? Too bad. Want to send in your rent or mail tax forms or vote? Sorry. And if you want to do something crazy like send in a patent application or submit to Fantasy & Science Fiction, you are out of luck.
“Talent is equally distributed, opportunity is not.”
— Harvard, Stanford, and MIT Researchers Study 1 Million Inventors To Find Secret To Success, And It’s Not Talent
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I’ve mentioned my love of the mail system and other vital public infrastructure before.
Adventure, Past and Future | J.R. Johnson
Even beyond the immediate usefulness, I find the concept of a system that ties us all together inspiring. Sure, the internet is obviously taking up a lot of that space (in ways both good and bad) but I also believe that there is also real value in its physical equivalent.
I mean, Owl Post is great and all, but consider the Muggles.
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The Drabble, with Examples
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, #amwritingscifi, adoption, constraint, drabble, Luna Station Quarterly, on writing, science fiction, short stories, speculative fiction, writing, writing process, writing tools on March 18, 2021| 11 Comments »
There are a lot of ways to write, and a lot of types of writing. Fiction alone comes in novels, of course, but also novellas, novelettes, short stories, screenplays, etc. I happen to have a soft spot for the drabble.
A drabble is a piece of fiction that is exactly 100 words long, excluding title. Explore the history of it at that link if you like, but for me the important part is the constraint.
One hundred words, no more, no less.
It’s an easy number of words to produce, of course, but there’s something I find so satisfying about trying to build a story within the confines of such a concrete target. The limits inspire creativity, make finishing feel not only possible but inevitable, and provide a sandbox to play in, if you will.
It’s also a terrific way to dip your toes in the rapids of fiction. My first two publications were drabbles (thanks, Luna Station Quarterly!):
“Ray of Light.”
“The Witch.”
Go ahead, try it for yourself. And have fun!
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This is my latest drabble, “Adoption Papers.”
I was sixteen when I found the receipt. My receipt.
“What the hell, Dad?”
The paper was old and faded, one tattered corner poking from a manila folder marked “Family Records.” There were maybe ten lines on the page, with a stamp at the top that read “Beta: Final Sale.”
Dad shrugged, like it was no big deal.
“Are you pissed that you’re a bot, or that you didn’t cost more?”
I hadn’t even noticed the total.
“Twelve and a half bucks? Seriously?”
He smiled. “We always said you were special.”
“Not on special!”
I blinked.
“Wait, I’m a what?”
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2020 Nebula Award Finalists
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, #fuelforwriters, #Nebulas2021, free fiction, Murderbot, Nebula Awards, science fiction, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, short stories, writing on March 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Here we are, folks, with the final list of Nebula finalists! Uncanny Magazine did great, my good buddy Murderbot is here (yay!), and I love seeing the good people at Diabolical Plots recognized as well.
Links to full text, excerpts, or reviews for shorts, novelettes and novellas included where (easily) accessible. Because I’ve got things to do, people, not least of which is to read these stories!
2020 Nebula Award Finalists
Novel
- Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
- The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
- Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
- The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk (Erewhon)
- Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
- Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tordotcom Publishing)
Novella
- “Tower of Mud and Straw,” Yaroslav Barsukov (Metaphorosis) Tower of Mud and Straw I – Yaroslav Barsukov – Metaphorosis Magazine
- Finna, Nino Cipri (Tordotcom Publishing) Read the First Two Chapters From Nino Cipri’s Finna | Tor.com
- Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom Publishing) Review: ‘Ring Shout,’ By P. Djèlí Clark : NPR
- “Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon,” Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Aurelia Leo) Ife-Iyoku, Tale of Imadeyunuagbon – Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
- The Four Profound Weaves, R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon) Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg – Locus Online
- Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom Publishing) Read an Excerpt From Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi | Tor.com
Novelette
- “Stepsister,” Leah Cypess (F&SF 5-6/20) Free novelette – STEPSISTER
- “The Pill,” Meg Elison (Big Girl, PM Press)
- “Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super,” A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 5-6/20) Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super – Uncanny Magazine
- “Two Truths and a Lie,” Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20) Two Truths and a Lie | Tor.com
- “Where You Linger,” Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Uncanny 1-2/20) Where You Linger – Uncanny Magazine
- “Shadow Prisons,” Caroline M. Yoachim (serialized in the Dystopia Triptych series as “The Shadow Prison Experiment,” “Shadow Prisons of the Mind,” and “The Shadow Prisoner’s Dilemma,” Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press) Shadow Prisons of the Mind – Lightspeed Magazine
Short Story
- “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse,” Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20) Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse – Uncanny Magazine
- “Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math,” Aimee Picchi (Daily Science Fiction 1/3/20) Daily Science Fiction :: Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math by Aimee Picchi
- “A Guide for Working Breeds,” Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris) https://www.tor.com/2020/03/17/a-guide-for-working-breeds-vina-jie-min-prasad/
- “The Eight-Thousanders,” Jason Sanford (Asimov’s 9-10/20) Q&A with Jason Sanford – From Earth to the Stars
- “My Country Is a Ghost,” Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 1-2/20) My Country Is a Ghost – Uncanny Magazine
- “Open House on Haunted Hill,” John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20) DP FICTION #64A: “Open House on Haunted Hill” by John Wiswell – Diabolical Plots
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
- Raybearer, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet)
- Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
- A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
- A Game of Fox & Squirrels, Jenn Reese (Holt)
- Star Daughter, Shveta Thakrar (HarperTeen)
Game Writing
- Blaseball, Stephen Bell, Joel Clark, Sam Rosenthal (The Game Band)
- Hades, Greg Kasavin (Supergiant)
- Kentucky Route Zero, Jake Elliott (Cardboard Computer)
- The Luminous Underground, Phoebe Barton (Choice of Games)
- Scents & Semiosis, Sam Kabo Ashwell, Cat Manning, Caleb Wilson, Yoon Ha Lee (Self)
- Spiritfarer, Nicolas Guérin, Maxime Monast, Alex Tommi-Morin (Thunder Lotus Games)
The Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Drama Presentation
- Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Christina Hodson (Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Entertainment)
- The Expanse: “Gaugamela,” Dan Nowak (Amazon)
- The Good Place: “Whenever You’re Ready,” Michael Schur (NBC)
- Lovecraft Country Season 1, Misha Green, Shannon Houston, Kevin Lau, Wes Taylor, Ihuoma Ofordire, Jonathan I. Kidd, Sonya Winton-Odamtten (HBO Max)
- The Mandalorian: “The Tragedy,” Jon Favreau (Disney+)
- The Old Guard, Greg Rucka (Netflix)
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How We Talk About the Future
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, Nebula Awards, science fiction, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, words on March 15, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The SFWA is about to announce this year’s candidates for the Nebula Awards, but that’s not happening until tonight. Until then, you might be interested in checking out the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.
How we talk about the future shapes our ideas of what’s possible, and shapes our approach to getting there. (“Cyberspace” wasn’t a term until William Gibson thought it up, and it moved from the page to the everyday.) Started by a (now former) editor at the Oxford English Dictionary, this site has been spun off into an updated, standalone resource.
Want more background information?
A Dictionary of Science Fiction Runs From Afrofuturism to Zero-G
(Just want to browse classic pulp magazines? You can do that too, at the Pulp Magazine Archive.)
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“One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist… Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.”
― Stephen Hawking
The dictionary is still a work in progress. It’s not comprehensive and doesn’t always reflect the diverse nature of science fiction. Want to help it do a better job of representing all of sci-fi?
Editor Jesse Sheidlower is looking for volunteers.
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