“There is no way around hard work. Embrace it.”
— Roger Federer
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Posts Tagged ‘Writers’
Cuddle Time
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The Last Days of Summer
Posted in Holidays, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »
A quick programming note: Mr Man and I have a little time off and we’re hoping to have some fun and be a bit spontaneous with our scheduling. In service of that goal, it’s time for a short series of posts featuring quotes! And pretty pictures!
“What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?”
― Ralph Ellison
No matter where you are or what you do, I hope you can take a moment to enjoy these last days of summer.
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The 2024 Hugo Award Winners
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, genre fiction, Hugo Awards, Writers, writing on August 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Apologies for the delayed announcement, but in case you were looking at the clock and idly wondering, “Who do you suppose won the Hugos this year?” I am here to help!
The awards are announced at the annual Worldcon, and this year it was held in Glasgow. I’ve never been, but it sounds like a lovely, storied locale.
Right, ahem, the envelope please!
2024 Hugo Award Winners | Glasgow 2024
Best Novel
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom, Orbit UK)
Best Novella
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (Tor, Titan UK)
Best Novelette
“The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny Magazine, November-December 2023)
Best Short Story
“Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, May 2023)
Best Series
Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie (Orbit US, Orbit UK)
See the above link for the complete list of winners.
I haven’t read all of these yet but I do love the feeling of having good stories waiting in the wings.
/rubs hands with glee!
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Consider This…
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #wotf39, creativity, editing, genre fiction, perfectionism, Thoughts, Writers, Writers of the Future, writing on August 21, 2024| 2 Comments »
Consider this: when you over edit something, you polish off the edges that made it unique and vibrant. A little polish is good, but not too much. Nobody wants a diamond polished into a ball bearing. They want something unique. Something sparkly. The world is full of uniform ball bearings. Be a flawed diamond.
— David Hankins, award-winning writer, author of Death and the Taxman, and all-around good duck
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Old Man Willow Sends His Best
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers on August 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Where did my imagination take root? In a yellow-brick house on a quiet country road, filled with bright windows and built-in bookshelves containing a wide range of genres, including science fiction and fantasy.
I remember that house well, not least because a friend recently sent me a listing for it on a rental site. It was odd to see the rooms looking so empty, with none of the life that still populates my memories. Even so, it was good to visit the house again.
And to remember what it was like to look out at the old willow shading the little creek behind our house, and dream.
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Writer, Curious
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, history, internet, spies, Writers on August 14, 2024| 2 Comments »
Writers are known for their weird web histories, and I am no exception. Today, I’ll highlight just one of the many oddities I have come across lately. In case you are a writer. Or are the curious sort.
The official CIA manual of trickery and deception
The manuals reprinted in this work represent the only known complete copy of Mulholland’s instructions for CIA officers on the magician’s art of deception and secret communications written to counter Soviet mind-control and interrogation techniques
I found the reference after reading this newsletter, featuring a little magic and some talking shoelaces.
These Shoes Are Made for Talking – Now I Know
So in 1953, according to the BBC, the CIA hired a man named John Mulholland to help, paying him $3,000 (the equivalent of $35,000 today) to write the first-ever “CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception.” Mulholland, though, wasn’t a spy — he was a magician. The manual outlined lots of different ways CIA agents could use the principles of illusionists to help them survive in the field and advance their goals.
I wondered, was the book still available? And lo, it was!*
* Free to read with login.
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An Elegant Symphony
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, learning@lunch, nonfiction, science, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I’m reading a nonfiction book that is fascinating, detailed and (so far, at least) very well written. My favorite sentence from the bit I read at lunch is this perfect illustration of how to set the tone as well as the stage:
The lighting is subtle, the decor an elegant symphony of beige.
— Gretchen Bakke, The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future
Can’t wait to read the rest!
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In Training
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“It’s good to do uncomfortable things. It’s weight training for life.”
― Anne Lamott
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It Will Be Beautiful
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #wotf, #wotf40, #WritersOfTheFuture, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Kal M, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »
If you are a writer, an illustrator or creator of any kind, this Writers of the Future winner has a message for you.
You Don’t Need to Fit In | Kal M
Hey, you. Yes, you, the one fretting in front of the computer because you’re too nervous to start on that story you promised yourself you’d work on. Come here a second; I have something to tell you.
Ready? Okay, here it is: you’ll be fine.
Maybe today is the day you need to hear this. If not, put it in your pocket and save it until you do.
Then pick yourself up and make something. It will be beautiful.
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Rob Sawyer Wants to Help You Write
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, computing, tech tools, Writers, writing on August 7, 2024| 4 Comments »
Are you laces over Crocs? Pedals over e-bike? Spiral pad over iPad? And are you looking for a tried-and-true way to translate your stories from mind to digital matter?
This new/old writing program could be for you.
Sci-fi writer and WordStar lover re-releases the cult DOS app for free | Ars Technica
WordStar’s most recent claim to fame might be that it’s the word processing application on which George R.R. Martin is still not finishing A Song of Ice and Fire.
But many writers loved and still love WordStar, a word processor notably good for actual writing.
Last updated in 1992, Wordstar still has devoted users. Rob Sawyer, all-around nice guy and winner of (checks notes) pretty much every sci-fi award ever, is one of them. He’s also done waiting.
Deciding that the app is now “abandonware,” Sawyer recently put together as complete a version of WordStar 7 as might exist. He bundled together over 1,000 pages of scanned manuals that came with WordStar, related utilities, his own README guidance, ready-to-run versions of DOSBox-X and VDosPlus, and WordStar 7 Rev. D and posted them on his website as the “Complete WordStar 7.0 Archive.”
I’ll be honest, this program probably isn’t for me. But I do love the fact that Rob figured out what works for him, found a way to keep it working for him (no mean feat in our current environment of disposable tech), and wants to share it with the rest of us.
If you are in the market for a head-down, “focus first” approach to writing and don’t mind installing a DOS emulator to use it, check out this beloved program.
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