Another essay on inspirations, this one from 1993. How is this dated? Only in personal ways. I no longer go to Rockaway Beach with other writers. The writer house changed management and it’s not possible to do. Not that I went the last few years anyway. I moved from the mountains to the coast in 1995, so no longer needed to vacation there. But the […]
August Recommended Reading List
A difficult month for reading. First there was Worldcon. Travel—particularly book tours and conventions—cut into my reading time, since I can sleep on any airplane these days. The books I did read were mostly unsatisfying. Some of what I’ve been reading has been research for a new project, so I’m not finishing the books, but dipping in and out of them, reading the pertinent sections. […]
Dark Corners
“Dark Corners,” my story that appeared in Baen’s Universe last year, has been reprinted in The Best of Jim Baen’s Universe #2. The books arrived yesterday.
Brian Thomsen
I’m not sure how many years it’s been since I last saw Brian Thomsen. I do know that it was more than five years ago, because Julius Schwartz was still alive. Julie, for those who didn’t know him, was THE DC editor in the 60s & 70s. Until his death in his 80s, he had an office at DC that he visited every week. I […]
The Perfect Short Story
Whenever we teach workshops with new students, I get reminded of a myth that exists among writers: There is such a thing as a perfect short story. To the beginning writer, the perfect short story is a story that will sell to every editor every time. To the sparsely published writer, the idea is a bit more complicated. Someday the sparsely published writer will achieve […]
Writing Advice
I was going to write a few essays inspired by our Short Story Workshop this past weekend. It turns out that my husband Dean Wesley Smith beat me to it. He’s covered three topics on his blog that I was going to talk about. Since he did it so well, I’m not going to write my version. I’ll write something new in a week or […]
Say Hello to My Little Friend
A new story just hit the bookshelves. “Say Hello to My Little Friend” is humor/fantasy. Those of you who came to my reading at Worldcon (thank you) heard me read this story. Now the anthology, Imaginary Friends has just appeared from Daw with the story inside. There are lots of other good stories here. Enjoy.
Gorgeous German Cover for Paloma
This is one of the few novels of mine in German that retained its English title! Of course, the title is a woman’s name… Here’s the cover for the newly released German edition of Paloma. I think it’s just lovely.
Tie-ins and SF
Mind Meld has done another long piece on an issue that won’t die: What kind of impact do tie-ins have on sf? Lots of good stuff in here. They actually asked tie-in writers as well as other sf folk. And yes, they asked me. You can find the latest tussle here.
Interview on Recovering Apollo 8
Sci Fi Wire just published an interview with me about “Recovering Apollo 8.” You can find it here.
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