Getting Closer...

Got another couple of pages on my website done. The HOme page, writing page, Appearance page, bookstore main page contacts page and dragon moon press page all work, as do all the links from those pages. Yay!

The Obsessions and Links pages are still a mess, so don't go there.

But I'm getting close...

Small Magics First Review!

I've been reviewed! Yay!

The review is courtesy of Jeanette Cottrell, herself an author published by Dragon Moon Press, and appears on Simegen.com.

The review is overall very positive and complimentary, and she rates the book at 4 stars!

Yay!

You can read the full review here, but this is my favorite part:

Small Magics is beguiling entertainment. Character motivations are understandable and compelling, whether they agree, conflict, or are in deadly combat with each other. The color provided in village and festival scenes are as lively as that shown in a mob rebellion or sneaking into a cemetery at dead of night. This is a good read. Sit down with a cup of coffee, put up your feet, and read Small Magics. You'll be glad you did.

Sounds great, doesn't it?

So, hey, if you haven't already, why not buy Small Magics?

Polaris 21

Some time ago I said I'd talk about how Polaris 21 went. And now I am.

When we last left our bungling hero, I was stumbling around the house until 3:30 AM the night before, having gotten the dates for Polaris 21 completely wrong, and now was desperately scrambling to get organized. Finally, I succumbed to exhaustion at 4:30 AM.

Up at 7:30, I finished getting the stuff ready and them proceeded to call my assistant way to early to see if he was available. Of course he wasn't, so I went by myself.

And I had a blast.

There were great costumes, wonderful displays, great merchants (I bought a Bokken!). I sat on five panels ranging from the effects of TV, Film and Video game violence to how to manage using technical talk in your sci-fi writing without completely driving off the reader. Met some great people including Tanya Huff, who's vampire books (blood line, blood ties, and many others) are being made into a TV series. Good for you Tanya!

Both stage combat workshops went well and were reasonably well attend (though scheduled at the same time as Tanya Huff's and Barbara Hambly's signings, dammit), and the two people who showed up for my reading both said they liked the book very much and would buy it as soon as it comes out. And one of the people who was coming in to kick us out for the next group, said what he heard sounded really tense and interesting.

And if you figure that that makes three people who were there and three people is a crowd, then there was a whole crowd of people at my reading and everyone in it loved my book!

And if you're reading this, guys, go here to get an advanced copy!

Oh, well, that's what happens when you get put opposite Marina Sirtis signing autographs. I wouldn't have been there myself.

I'm on the clock in three minutes, but I wanted to end by saying I had a great time and thanks to David at Polaris for inviting me, and to everyone I met, played with, and talked with.

See you next year!

Who Do I Play with Now?

I just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In fact, I just reread the entire series from beginning to end.

I will try very hard not to give away any of the plot because I know there are many out there who haven't finished it yet. Instead, I wanted to talk about how I feel.

Bereft.

Not because what's in the book itself (I won't say anything about that yet), but because the series has ended. Definitively.

Harry and Hermione and Ron are done their adventures, and even though I can go back and read them again (and will) it won't be the same. I know what happens now, I know all the clues and all the stories and while each time I read it I will find new things and learn a bit more about the characters, it won't be the same.

It feels like all my friends moved away, and I am standing in the middle of the street alone.

Who do I play with now?

And that is the sign of a very, very good book, and a very, very good series.

I promised I'd talk about Polaris 21, and while I'm at it, I'll talk about where I've been for two weeks. But not today. Today, I'm going to think about my friends whose adventures are done.

I am going to miss them.

On Writing and Arguing: Logical Fallacies

This post by my friend Chet at The Vanity Press led to some thinking on my part on logic and the nature of language, which in turn led me to a list of common logical fallacies created by Dr. Michael C. Labossiere and posted on The Nizkor Project website.

Now, I took logic in university and did absolutely horrid at it (something to do with the class being at 8:30 AM, I suspect). Even so, I believe that understanding logic is very important. So much so that I believe we should be teaching it in high school along with rhetoric (the art or study of using language effectively and persuasively) so our kids can tell when politicians (or teachers or parents or advertisers) are lying to them.

So there's the link. Have a read. Then try to remember it the next time you listen to a pundit.

On Writing

I had a long conversation with a friend of mine last night about the craft of writing. What makes it fun, what makes it frustrating, what makes an otherwise sane person (okay, aperson of questionable sanity, in my case) sit for hours in front of a computer (or notebook or typewriter or whatever) putting together stories that have come out of God knows what part of the subconscious in the vain hopes tht someone will like reading them.

And more important, how do we do it to the best of our abilities?

I realized that this was something I wanted to talk about and to share with others, and so I'm going to start wtiting on writing here on the blog. I don't know that there will be many entries, and I don't know how original, but it should be educational for me, and some of it may even be useful to so some of you.

So to start, if anyone wants to answer, I'll ask, why do you write?

For me, I write because not writing is painful. I feel like all the thoughts and emotions and ideas inside me will explode if I don't regularly put fingers to keyboard.

I also write because I can see these stories inside me, and I want to capture them before they vanish.

...well, aren't I dramatic?

Anyway, that's why I write. Why do you write?


Meanwhile
I've just gotten the latest copy of the Dragon Moon Press newsletter, which features yours truly as the lead story.

I recommend Dragon Moon Press (and not justbecause they publish me). If you would like to learn more about what the authors are doing, why not sign up for the newsletter?

DMP does not sell their email list to anyone, and you'll learn all about what's coming up for the Press and for all of us.

And now, I have work to do on the new iteration of my website, and on Cold Magics (yay! writing!)

More soon.

And It's Off...

I have just finished going over the final proofs for Small Magics. These come looking like the interior of the book, and are the author's last chance to make sure he hasn't screwed up too badly before the book goes to the printer.

While I'm pleased to say I didn't screw up too badly, I can't say I didn't screw up the last edit. Found a huge number of punctuation errors, and some text that was bad and needed fixing in a big way. All of that is now done. The errata is on its was back to Dragon Moon, and I am getting all excited.

And now to write something in Cold Magics, just to show I have started work again.

(Given how tired I am, I'll be lucky if it's a complete sentence)

Then to bed. To sleep, to dream, to get up and go to work.

Update:
And those of you who read this before I fixed the typos will know why it is so important to proof your work. And most of all, proof when you aren't tired!

Late Night...

And I haven't written or edited anything yet.

Spent most of this evening writing an email to Laura Deihl about the cover art she is doing for the book (Hi Laura, if you happen to drop by). She's doing great work and I wanted to make sure that I communicated that as well as talked about the things I wanted to question (we authors are a demanding and annoying lot).

Anyway, that's all for me tonight. More blogging later in the week. Now I must edit and write before I go to bed.

I'm tired.

On Writing: "Grace Always Trumps Pedantry"

I came across the quote in the title of this article while deciding whether to use "then" or "and then" in one sentence in Small Magics (I didn't use either. I changed the sentence). It comes from Jack Lynch's Guide to Grammer and Style (the actual quote is here under "Grace") and it sums up what good writing is as neatly as I have ever seen.

Good writing is graceful.

And graceful doesn't mean short or long or beautiful or grammatically correct. And it doesn't matter whether the language is elegant or foul, or if author uses short, choppy sentences in three line paragraphs or long, languishing sentences that make paragraphs run pages.

What matters is that the writing flows; that it takes the reader from one moment to the next, one character to the next, one scene to the next. And it doesn't matter if the writing guides the reader gently along or hauls the reader like a bouncer tossing a drunk. What matters is that the reader comes along for the ride.

You can always tell when the writer's grace has failed them. It's the moment when you suddenly find yourself stepping back from the book; from the moment and the characters and the scene and the world they inhabit. It's the moment when you actually think about what you are reading, rather than being swept away by it all.

So back to editing. Here's hoping for grace.

Update:

My mother caught a typo in the third paragraph (thanks Mom!).

And in answer to your other note, you are correct, it was intentional. Using the plural "them" to the singular "the writer" is a graceful way of being gender inclusive while avoiding the awkward "him or her."

(See how I worked "graceful" in there, relating this update back to the subject of the post? Slick, eh?)