Storytellersunplugged

I’m doing another one of my screenwriting in an hour workshops in New Orleans this weekend, at Heather Graham’s Writers for New Orleans workshop. (Yes, and partying in New Orleans, too. I deserve it, okay?) I know, it’s crazy, right? – what can you possibly teach anyone about anything in an hour? Well, I can’t teach screenwriting in an hour, but I’ve found I can teach people how to start to teach THEMSELVES screenwriting in an hour. (And what ... Read More

-- Bev Vincent I have published something on the order of fifty short stories since I began writing seriously at the beginning of the millennium. Some of the early stories appeared in what are disparagingly referred to as “for the love” (or “4theLuv”) markets. A few were published in “royalty only” anthologies (which are but a smidgen better than 4theLuv markets in that in rare cases some of them have delivered a pittance in revenue—my current record is about $18). Most of ... Read More

As I said earlier, the most basic purpose of book promotion is to let people know that your book exists, why they might want to pick up a copy, and where they can get it. Some authors aren't keen on promotion. They might make a brief announcement on their blog, webpage, or mailing list, then put their noses back to grindstone, focusing on The Work. They rely mostly on the kindness of strangers, friends, and their publishers to get the word ... Read More

It's a book. Or more precisely, it's a pair of books. They're titled Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth, and I've been working on them--one way or another--since the very beginning of 2003. This is what they look like: Pretty, aren't they? They're about Christopher Marlowe and Will Shakespeare and faeries and queens and devils and spies and swordfights and blackest enchantments, and I bet if you read them you would really like them a lot-- --You know what? Reboot. Forget that. I ... Read More

by Gerard Houarner Another in an occasional series of over-intellectualized approaches to writing which, at worst, will send you screaming into the internet abyss after the first paragraph or, if you get through a few lines, may remind you or jog into place a more coherent version of the notion you've had all along. I'm not promising anything, I'm just throwing a bunch of suff out there.... Filters. This is what you could call what folks, and characters, use to include and exclude information about themselves and ... Read More

by Alexandra Sokoloff I have to warn you, this month’s post is going to seem a bit radical to some of you. You may even feel, well, horror, at what I’m about to tell you. I’m going to talk about my secret favorite convention. And no, it’s not WHC, or WFC, or World Con or Horrorfind or DragonCon or any of those. It’s the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention. (I’ll wait for the gasps to subside…) But I think it’s important for people in the ... Read More

During the last few months of pregnancy, usually around the fifth but sometimes as late as the eighth, a woman’s nesting instinct kicks in.  Some primitive switch hidden deep inside the female brain flips, and the most laid-back woman suddenly becomes Robo-maid; cleaning, rearranging, putting away, and throwing out.  Childproofing and smoothing all the rough edges of her environment.  Home becomes not just a place in which to live, eat, sleep, and watch Big Brother, but a place of warmth, safety and ... Read More

Deborah LeBlanc A couple of weeks ago an article regarding a new imprint from HarperCollins appeared in the Wall Street Journal that made me see red. Here are a few excerpts from it: "Marking a radical departure from traditional book-publishing practices, HarperCollins Publishers says it will launch a new book imprint that won't accept returns from retailers or pay advances to authors. "To be headed by veteran publishing executive Robert S. Miller, the imprint also likely won't pay for more desirable display space in the ... Read More

We humans are by nature social creatures, barring the occasional woeful exceptions. Like that guy down the street who, if greeted, will glare at you as though you’ve grown a syphilitic second head. And that desk clerk who couldn’t be any less approachable if she was wearing porcupine quills and a skunk’s tail. But the rest of us? We thrive in the welcoming light of others’ eyes and wither in the darkness of their apathy. Writers in particular. For us, reader/peer appreciation ranks ... Read More

Put yourself in their shoes. Would you have survived? Could you hack it under such conditions? Oh, don't pretend you've never thought about it. I mean, how did Dickens pull it off? What about Austen or Bronte? They didn't have laptops for mobility, or word processing for easy editing, or iPods for drowning out the screaming babies and clattering horseshoes, or...Well, for that matter, they didn't have thermostat-controlled work environments or soft reliable lighting. I write at a desk upstairs, separated from my bed ... Read More