Warning -- banal, day-to-day life entry follows.Yesterday was, for a low-key and pleasant Saturday, enjoyably busy ( Read more... )

Thanks to critiques from a number of kind folks recently, I've been able to look clear-eyed at flaws in some of my manuscripts and writing. I try to write clearly, but we all fail sometimes. With that in mind, I'm starting to make my own personal editing checklist. It's something I've thought about over the years and I'm glad it's finally ( Read more... )

There's going to be a sequel to the Dark Crystal. Directed by a fellow most well known for creating Cartoon Network shows. Hmmm. The premise sounds initially alluring, tho: girl made of fire steals shard of crystal to restore dying sun. Brian Froud will be involved in the character design again, which is a Good Thing. I only hope they can ( Read more... )

Nothing much has really grabbed me lately, reading-wise. I've been desultorily plowing through a book that should not be a plow: The Thin Man. Source of the famous comedy/detective series, the novel is enjoyable and interesting but failed to hold my interest. It is interesting to see how the movies and novel differ. In a sense, I think the ( Read more... )

Grrr... There I was, writing along comfortably in the silent darkness when along comes the sun! My venetian blinds and the curtains were no match for its intense rays. Sigh. I have rather enjoyed our current lengthy bout of rain. It's felt like proper PNW weather for some time now. I hope this "sunshine" development is only a temporary thing ( Read more... )

Last night I ran across this essay about editing fiction. It was written in 1998 by one Leslie What, an SF author who first published in 1992. It's better than many other similar essays I've read on the subject in that it's not pretentiously windy, but nor is it too bare-bones. It gave me a couple ideas, which I think is a pretty good ( Read more... )

So I found an interesting little discussion going on over on nick_kaufmann's LJ last night, about the nature of horror style, specifically "plain" vs. "pretentious." Given the number of authors I read and enjoy who have been stuck with the latter label, I was interested. Here's what I said, about the question as to whether or not it's weird that some authors ( Read more... )

If you like comics, or zombies, or interpersonal drama, or situations that force human relations to the breaking point, take a look at The Walking Dead. It's a black & white comic book series put out by Image that I'm currently reading in graphic novel form. It's good stuff! The zombies are not the focus, per se, even though they are prominent ( Read more... )

An invocation from a book I'm reading: "Sometimes you just need to leave things alone. Don't worry about them or think about them -- just do them." Point taken, Universe, thanks for the help.

Lately I've been reading various criticism on horror and Gothic fiction, all of which has conspired to make me think more -- and confuse me -- about my own writerly goals. Regardless of my mini-diatribe the other way about how Lovecraft, et al., are superior and Whedon, Pratchett, et al., are inferior, I'm not sure of anything at the moment. Part ( Read more... )