Archive for July, 2007
The Myth Pool and a Draught of Perspective
By David Niall Wilson
I’m currently reading one of the most recent novels by Stephen King, Lisey’s Story, which is a twist on the old writer writing a story about a writer plot. The story is about the widow of a writer, and is full of insights from an odd perspective. The perspective, in this [...]
Details
R C Jones
In case some of you unpluggers might someday wish to write about a situation involving a shooting, some information about firearm identification might come in handy. First, a bit of basic background. For the sake of brevity, I will limit the discussion to handguns, that is, to revolvers and semi-automatic pistols. [...]
HE’S A (BLANK) WRITER
(Since we have not yet replaced the inestimable Dick Hill in the SU lineup, I have this extra essay penned by our own “Alienmotives” Bill Lindblad on hand for just such an occasion. Thanks Bill)
by William Lindblad
Pigeonholing happens. It’s easy for people to make categories and slip individuals into one of the slots [...]
(Thinking about) Thinking about Writing
Sarah Monette
This month, let’s not talk about my book (although it does, btw, look like I’m going to meet my deadline after all). Instead, let’s go all meta and think about the ways we think about writing.
Homo sapiens sapiens is a peculiar species in more ways than one, but one of our most endearing [...]
TAKE THIS JOB AND…
Wayne Allen Sallee
Brian Knight’s comment about his coworker in his entry of a few days back got me to thinking. No one at my job really brought up the process of how, say, WITH WOUNDS STILL WET, was published when I had paraded copies around. Certainly, I had back-up to my writing credentials, [...]
Where Part of a Story Might Come From
Lyon.
Autumn
Night.
This is the city of ancient sorceries and Blackwood’s “Ancient Sorceries”, of churches on hills and walls of fire-blackened stone houses huddled in close alongside them. It’s the city of grand avenues and cobblestones, of streetcorner vin chaud in the winter and constant rain in the spring, of a hundred tiny bouchons tucked into even [...]
Defining Moments
By Janet Berliner
Last night, I reread some of the stories in David Niall Wilson’s short story collection, DEFINING MOMENTS. The stories are written from the inside out. That’s why they’re brilliant. You’re IN the characters, at the place, feeling the pain and the pleasure. The book is a limited edition, so why am I promoting [...]
Two Books To Read . . . and Re-read
By Stan Ridgley
What books do you choose to read? And which books do you like to read?
Which books are you driven to read?
There are differences, you know.
If the question comes up, most often people ask me what books I like to read.
Now, they ask this question for assorted reasons. Either to shut me up from [...]
Garden of Unearthly Delights
by Jeffrey Thomas
Whenever I fear I’m imitating myself as a writer, returning too often to territory I’ve worked before, I always remind myself of Monet and his water lilies, a series he painted over the last twenty-seven years of his life. Sometimes I worry that I’m being lazy or unimaginative, not pushing myself far enough [...]
Explain Yourself - or Bikini Waxing Your Way to Fame and Fortune
by Brian Knight
This happens to me all the time, so I should be well prepared for it by now, but it still catches me off guard every time. It’s the question everyone seems to pose to me after finding out I’m a writer (that is if they don’t head for the hills when they [...]
