Monthly Archives: December 2011

(Post) NaNoFeed: notes from the editorial charnel house

“Kill your darlings.” It’s attributed to Virginia Woolf, but someone else said it. She just lived by it. In a draft or two, I’m hoping to follow her example. I’m currently lighting votive candles at the altar of St. Virginia … Continue reading

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No Royal Road

Before I was a writer, I was (and still am) a visual artist. I could draw before I could talk; in fact, my parents were more than a little worried because that began very late, between three and four. (“And … Continue reading

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So, what do I think about the electronic publishing game?

On break from the day job, so I have been getting caught up on my reading. No hope of that, but we do it anyway. It’s like trying to swim the Pacific Ocean. That list includes nonfiction sources for this … Continue reading

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The ragged tag-end first draft blues

They warned us, of course. Finish the novel in November. Use that last crazy burst of energy to get it all down, and fix it up later. I’m still finishing it. There is one chapter that needs rewriting into an … Continue reading

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Six Sentence Sunday, 18 December 2011 (Annie Brown and the Superhero Blues)

They were apprentice wizards, the three of them, with a penchant for clever hackery. Bertie had sent the three of them to Annie, saying, “She’s an engineer. She could tell you about flying.” She had meant to tell them that … Continue reading

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The mysteries of beta reading, or mapping what isn’t there

I am currently beta-reading a number of first-draft novel manuscripts. Over the last three years of National Novel Writing Month, I have been privileged to acquire a small group of first-draft beta-reading friends. Those relationships have grown slowly, out of … Continue reading

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NaNo 2011 novel revision plan, revised version

From long experience, I know that I get things done, however ambitious my lists of things to do. However, hardly ever do I get them done on the original timeline. As I’m looking at the missing pieces of this year’s … Continue reading

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Six Sentence Sunday, 11 December 2011 (Annie Brown and the Superhero Blues)

Then Sunny’s cell phone buzzed, and the look on her face told all: that was Courtney. Courtney having issues, Courtney being needy, Courtney needing bodyguarding as she went clubbing: Courtney with the black hair and pale pale skin and six-inch … Continue reading

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Apprenticing with the dead: smashing the four-dimensional fourth wall (Alexander Herzen)

My fiction is full of time-slips and voices from the past surfacing in the present, and foldings-over that make the chain of causality obscure at best. You know what they say: write what you know. The voices in the next … Continue reading

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The curious dance of order and chaos

After yesterday’s break, I realized that it was indeed “rest” rather than “being lazy” that made me take a break from looking at the NaNo novel. Today I woke up with very clear ideas about the missing parts: how the fantastic … Continue reading

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