stories from the mindscape of A.L. Blacklyn
This is an announcement of my new pen name-- --and a quick question-and-answer about it. Q: What Do We Call You? A: The A stands for several names I've gone by offline. If that's how you know me, then continue on. Members of the Society for Creative Anachronism are familiar with how that works. The… Continue reading Moving Shadows Pen Name
A speculative fiction author published a blog post that I feel needs attention before it spreads through the writing community as gospel. In "Discrimination in the Writing World", David Farland opened with, A few days ago, I saw a Facebook post from a woman who complained that she didn’t want to see panels by “boring,… Continue reading David Farland Missed the Point About Discrimination in the Writing World
When I posted "NaNoWriMo 2018: Late to Camp", we were already in the second week of July. I'd committed to a new project and no cabin for encouragement. Feeling alone and behind schedule makes for an intimidating start. Fortunately, Camp is far more relaxed than the big NaNoWriMo challenge in November. A few people joined… Continue reading Goodbye, Camp NaNoWriMo 2018
Where's the line between Horror and Dark Fantasy? The question bothered me earlier this week. Is my classification of darker works appropriate? I've always heard the Horror genre defined by the author's intentions, along the lines of "Horror is anything meant to scare the reader." That makes sense, though it's strange to acknowledge that I… Continue reading Pans in the Fire, Hands Writing Ire
Though my focus this month remains on my short stories, I know many of the writers I see online are holding on to completed book manuscripts in need of homes. Are you ready for an agent or content editor? Manuscript Wish Tracking I came upon resources for querying publishing agents that is now in Www-writing… Continue reading A Few Ways to Get to Publishing Agents
Readers use genre to narrow down their interests. Librarians and reviewers want to know how to tag or shelf books. Authors need to reach a suitable audience to sell a story, whether it's an agent or editor who asked for work in a specific genre or ebook buyers searching on categories. At least among authors… Continue reading What is Contemporary Fantasy?
Don't bother referencing quick advice from ten years ago. Here are general standards for submitting short stories to traditional markets today.
