stories from a liminal mindscape
I've watched peers worry over query letters for so long that the fact I have yet to send any to agents or editors for a completed manuscript feels strange. Perhaps I'm lucky. I have written query letters for the fun of it and to query editors about the marketability of incomplete manuscripts. (Turns out my… Continue reading How to Stop Worrying About the Query Letter
My first ebook is available exclusively as an Amazon Kindle download. This sword and sorcery fantasy is a short story based (very) loosely on my research of medieval Wales. The ebook will be offered for free as an All Hallow's Eve deal from tomorrow (Monday) through Thursday. Subscribers of Kindle Unlimited will continue to have… Continue reading Release Day: “Grotesquery”
quotes and lessons from MileHiCon 50, a literary speculative fiction convention Modeling the World in Fiction There's a quality of fiction that's modeling--that's showing a model of the world. Author Paolo Bacigalupi said this last Friday during a panel discussion. His line is one of the best things I heard at the convention. That's one… Continue reading Post-Convention Thoughts and Reimagining
This is an announcement of my new pen name-- --and a quick question-and-answer about it. Question: What Do We Call You? Answer: The A stands for several names I've gone by offline. You may continue on with however you know me. Members of the Society for Creative Anachronism are familiar with how that works. Do… Continue reading Moving Shadows Pen Name
A recognizable 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… 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
