Stories are getting shorter and shorter these days as our schedules get more and more full–we’ve begun reading our stories on coffee sleeves and business cards and the ever-popular Twitter, in 140-characters or less. Nathan Lilly, editor of the now-infamous Twitter magazine Thaumatrope, just posted a great essay about the essence of lightning fiction: In my comings and goings,…
My dear friend, bestselling thriller author J.T. Ellison, recently posted “10 Tips for Marketing Your Book Online.” In a world where banks have started holding payroll checks because so many of them are bouncing, online marketing’s a particularly savvy tool that all writers should investigate. Most importantly, J.T. includes the most important piece of advice that should be on…
Porcelain. Chocolate. Alabaster. Cafe au lait. Tawny. At one point or another, you’ve read all these adjectives to describe skin tone. (Go on, I know I’m missing some. Feel free to add your own in the comments.) Every time I notice these same tried-and-true descriptions, it makes me wonder what words I would use to characterize my own skin….
Last night I was editing a story I hadn’t looked at in a while — it needed some TLC and the 10% cut (you know, the rule about trimming 10% of the words…that’s a GOOD edit). I dug it out because it was one of those rare times when a magazine was in the market for A, B, X,…
Yes, apparently I am one of *those* writers. I’ve been working on this ghost story for Michael Knost this week, based on a plantation house in West Virginia. First, of course, I had to do a butt-ton of research because I can’t write about somewhere like Mount St. Helens or Harlan, Kentucky without knowing the place like I’d lived…
The long-awaited, highly-anticipated audio version of my Shimmer Clockwork Jungle issue story “The Giant & The Unicorn” is now live! Hooray! I swear I channeled Kate Winslet for this narration. Click here to listen (run time about 19 minutes) and tell me if you think the same. This story is rated G — appropriate for all ages and fun…
Once upon a time, Jodi Lee asked me to write an introduction for a dark little anthology called Courting Morpheus. Since then, The New Bedlam Project has sort of taken on a life of its own (including its very own website — click here to check it out). Three years later (which is like seven minutes in Publishing Time…or…
…I’m just really, REALLY busy working. I’m revising a book, copyediting another one…and guess what? I’m going to be reading stories for Apex, because Jason was so happy with Foiled. Awesome, huh? The sun comes out sometimes here now, almost like it’s really Spring, and in a couple of weeks we’re going to see the cherry blossoms. I’ve always…
It seems my Alien Invasion dreams motivated me to hit the ground running the second I got out of bed this morning. It’s certainly not a bad thing, I suppose…but I’m kind of glad I don’t get to pick which dreams I have. I certainly don’t want that one *every* night. I should be caught up on my emails…
I often get asked where I got the inspiration for AlphaOops. It’s true, it did really come out of a discussion at Orson Scott Card’s Boot Camp, but the seed of the idea has been germinating inside me all my life. If your name starts with “A”, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Those of us whose names start…
Dearest Squad, This chapter is dedicated to my paternal…
Dearest Squad, I have no idea how to introduce…
Preorder THIEFTESS here! I think I summed up most…
