I invited writers who made Amazon’s SF/F Top 10 for 2008 to send me their own year’s best list. The latest, from J.M. McDermott, is now up on the Amazon book blog. It’s a function of genre being a small pond that two anthologies I co-edited with Ann are on the list. Sometimes there’s no […]
Evil Monkey says “do this or else”: – Choose a chapter or scene from your favorite novel. – Photocopy it so you can easily place it on your typing stand. (For even more interesting results, perform this entire exercise in longhand.) – Now retype the chapter or scene verbatim. – Set aside your retyped version. […]
I was struck by his skillful mixing of a state of the union speech with the more general aspects of an inaugeration speech. He had reassurances to foreign powers, in addition to setting out a list of the challenges facing the United States. He also did a good job of invoking our forefathers, and that […]
Every human being is a puppet on strings, but the strings do not ascend to some anonymous Maker, but are glistening golden strands that connect one puppet to another. Each strand is sensitive to the vibrations of every other strand. Every vibration sings in not only one heart, but in the hearts of many, so […]
Bush was never Sauron. He was always Saruman. The snake in the grass who thinks he knows everything and knows nothing. All hail the new guy. Let’s give him a chance. Meanwhile, no 60 in 60 today as I’m giving myself time off for the inaugeration. Normal life will resume tomorrow.
Last week we discussed the things that writers hate. Now it’s time to discuss the things that editors hate. Please note that we’re all in this together. The word “hate” here is used in the same context as saying “I really hate it when my husband forgets to clean the kitty litter box.” We’re a […]
This blog post is part of my ongoing “60 Books in 60 Days” encounter with the Penguin Great Ideas series–the Guardian’s book site of the week and mentioned on the Penguin blog. (Their latest post comments on the first 20.) From mid-December to mid-February, I will read one book in the series each night and […]
For me, this link to Shriek on the Church’s discography site is pretty interesting in terms of seeing how something gets “translated” from fiction into lyrics. If you click on a track listing, you get the lyrics for the non-instrumental pieces and the part of Shriek they came from. Seeing the transformation is fascinating. For […]
Below find a short piece I wrote for the Tallahassee Democrat awhile back on Tamar Yellin’s first novel. It was in honor of her doing a reading at Ann’s synagogue. At the time, the hardcover was out from Toby Press and had gotten good reviews from the library journals. Since then, the book has won […]
This blog post is part of my ongoing “60 Books in 60 Days” encounter with the Penguin Great Ideas series–the Guardian’s book site of the week and mentioned on the Penguin blog. (Their latest post comments on the first 20.) From mid-December to mid-February, I will read one book in the series each night and […]