Love in Dark Settings

"Because you were talking about being new and everything, I am sort of trying to nurture your posting process and draw you out the way people were nice enough to do to me when I was new and terrifed, so you keep posting forever and ever and ever . . .

"(only unfortunately my version of subtle nurturing and tactful drawing-out is 'OMFG C'MERE EVERYBODY COME LOOK AT THIS OMG SQUEE!!')"

--Maculategiraffe to fellow writer Mydonald.


How I reply to comments at this blog (usually).


First the dull stuff:

( What I did for my Muse recently )

( My New Year's resolutions )

And now the really good stuff:

( Links related to my writings: fanfic, fan art, reviews, and a new essay by me )

Sorry, guys, I'm still catching up on replying to your comments. I decided to post this now, rather than make you wait forever.

"If shopping at your local Borders is part of your weekly routine, and then Borders is gone, you may end up doing something other than buying books."

--Michael Norris, concerning the impact of the closure of the Borders bookstore chain on the publishing industry.

How I reply to comments at this blog.


( Continuing to plunge into publishing )

( Done. )

( The Three Lands and editing )

( Work and weather )

( The heat index was 119 degrees in my town today )

( Weather reports )

( A lesson in leatherboy-speak )

( Reviews and recommendations of fiction and nonfiction narratives )

( Other links )

"There's definitely a place for [violence in fiction]. Nobody wants to read books about fluffy kittens making friends with flying unicorns and living without conflict ever after. I just wonder if it's always necessary to give violence as central a place as it usually gets. Violence can be necessary, but it can also be a cheap way of moving things on by having a man come through the door with a gun, violence in place of plot arising from character."

--Jo Walton.

(BBC Radio manages to create excellent audio dramas with tons of conflict and virtually no onstage violence. Maybe us novelists should be taking notes?)

How I reply to comments at this blog.


( Darkling Plain and Unmasked - two unfinished stories )

( Why Samuel Johnson was wrong )

( Foodfail and writerfail )

( Thoughts about 'Hell's Messenger' )

( And the composing year ends )

( Book reviews and recommendations )

( Other links )

( Reply to comments )

"Change is inevitable. And, just as we assigned nostalgia to cheap, discarded paperbacks in piles underneath failing bookstores, or to scratchy vinyl records we have to flip to listen through and that had us begging for the clarity and capacity of the CD, the affordances and special traits of e-books will somehow become charming to the next generation. They may remember reading a certain book on a certain device with fond memories, or where they were, or how they discovered the book on Facebook and who recommended it. New interactive formats will deliver a new aesthetic. The human mind will find new ways to embrace stories and how they're told."

--Kent Anderson: Mourning the Printed Book - The Aesthetic and Sensory Deprivation of E-books.

How I reply to comments at this blog.


( Deadline looms )

( E-book plans for this summer  )

( Nonfiction projects )

( My magic formula for writing regularly )

( I'm still alive (*gasp*); thoughts on the publishing industry's future; Bookshare, Harlequin, and Carina Press )

( Links that might interest you )

"The most important piece of advice I can give to any aspiring writer is very, very simple. If you are an aspiring writer: Write. Don't think about writing, don't plan to write, don't hope to write. Just write."

--Neil Gaiman.


If any of you have been seeking an invite code to Dreamwidth, I have a bunch. Just drop me an e-mail.

How I reply to comments at this blog.


( My story formula (with minor spoilers for 'Life Prison,' 'The Breaking,' and 'Blood Vow') )

( Layout, editing, and composing )

( Layout and e-mail )

( Any folks here who know ePub code? )

( Links that might interest you )

( Reply to comments )

"What should one do to report a website that one suspects is in violation of copyright? . . . Seeing I'm the copyright holder and have every right to grumble, no-one's ever done anything more than take the book or story down, occasionally -- very occasionally -- muttering something hopeless and grumbly like 'information wants to be free!' as they do, but mostly being very pleased someone let them know that it was up there.

('No, that's pizza,' I want to tell them. 'Pizza wants to be free. Concentrate on liberating pizza from evil pizzerias. Information, on the other hand, really hates being free, and is never happier than when manacled to a wall, like Kirk and Spock in some piece of late 70s bondage-oriented slash fiction.')"

--Neil Gaiman.

How I reply to comments at this blog.


( The Nifty folks continue to arrive )

( My current diet )

( E-book publishing, and my father's thoughts on beautiful book design )

( Locus and e-books )

( Smashwords and Meatgrinder )

( Links that might interest you )

"[Editors who are] used to plowing through mountains of manuscripts find reading digital pages less satisfying: 'It's difficult to tell how far you have to read [and it's] not as satisfying as throwing away pages.'"

--Publishing Trends

How I reply to comments at this blog.

Just a gentle reminder: I posted a thread with a request for prompts for my holiday gift story two weeks ago. So far, I've only received one prompt (which needs to be tweaked if my Muse is to be able to do anything with it).

This is the one time of the year you guys can say, "You never wrote about such-and-such!" and my Muse will pay full attention.


( Worrying about e-book publishing )

( In which my Muse saunters in blithely, as though he had never left )

( And my Muse continues his stunning reversal  )

( Life Prison (with a question for you guys), royal wedding, and 'Sherlock' )

( The results of my pricing experiment this week )

( Reply to comments )

All right, it's time for me to convert a few people to the Doctor Who fandom.

The Doctor Who television series is a national institution in Britain. Whenever a new actor is appointed to become the Doctor, he receives the type of coverage in British newspapers that is usually reserved for new Prime Ministers. Alas, the program isn't as well known in the U.S., though it ought to be: it has that blend of high drama and silliness which the British have perfected.

I first encountered the program in 1977, at age fourteen; my family was living in England then. Doctor Who is the type of television program where you can just plop down in the middle of the series. (Which is a good thing, because the series has been running since 1963. It's the longest-running science fiction TV series in the world.) The old series of Doctor Who (1963-1989, 1996) is cult science fiction. The new series (2005-2010) retains the best qualities of the old series but has better production values.

The Doctor is a traveller in time and space. The only other thing you need to know before watching these clips, which are all from the 2010 season, is that the Doctor has the ability to regenerate into a new body if his old body dies. Thus he has been played by eleven different actors since 1963.

( Clips, recommendations, and fannish stuff )

Momma: "Francis, clean up all this trash!!"

Francis (her teenage son): "I can't, Momma. It's evidence."

Momma: "Of what??"

Francis: "A full, rich life."

--A strip from Mell Lazarus's Momma comic, given to me by my mother when I was young.


Just popping in briefly to post my November tweets and to ask that you keep me in your thoughts. At the advice of my family doctor and of an infectious diseases specialist I consulted, I'm going off my antibiotics (gradually, 50 milligrams at a time). You may recall that, when my ophthalmologist halved my antibiotic dosage in August, I had a medical crisis. I'm hoping that was a coincidence and that I'll be okay this time through.

My holiday giftfic is finished; if I'm not up to posting it myself, my apprentice will post it around Christmastime (probably not on Christmas itself, since he'll be spending that with his family). Otherwise, I'll see you later this month.


( This month's tweets )

"After reading the sample chapters, I was intrigued, but I don't have the money right now to go around buying books just because I want to read them. So I hopped on the web, and a short time later I was reading the book for free.

"(That is to say, I placed a hold request at my public library’s website, and a few days later picked up the hardcover. Why, what did you think I meant?)"

--Chris Meadows.

How I reply to comments at this blog.

( This winter's schedule (tentative), with thoughts about word counts )

( Preparing for Internet blackout over the winter )

( This week's tweets )

( Reply to comments )