The gorgeous but unpredictable little mare who bucked me off and kicked my husband (same maneuver; she probably didn’t intend to hit him) in mid-February finally sold to someone in California, hurray, hurray. Until she’s transported, she’ll be out of that barn and into another site to gain weight for the trip (she’s not bony, Read More…
Category: the writing life
Changes
You will have noticed, I’m sure, the new button on the front page for Privacy Policy. I hope it covers what it’s supposed to; I tried, but one never knows when a new government regulation shows up, and especially not from a government not one’s own. You may also have noticed that there aren’t any Read More…
Recognition
When I was in that stage of adolescence when you may (if not in angsty despair) daydream longingly about being famous someday so people will admire you and you’ll have tons of friends and all the people who think are being nasty to you now will be stricken with either remorse or envy (or maybe Read More…
New Vatta-verse Story
I have a new Vatta story in Infinite Stars, a new anthology edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt that’s out today. https://titanbooks.com/infinite-stars-9264/ . It fits between the end of Vatta’s War and the beginning of Cold Welcome, and is the story that I originally planned Ky’s first meeting with Jen–that I posted here or thought I Read More…
Copy Edits!
Copy edits arrived this morning. The work space is set up now, with dictionary and Chicago Manual of Style at hand, and several sharp pencils. This is the *next to last* step for me (checking page proofs is the last) and one that’s very important. Even so, if you find a typo in the final Read More…
Next Step
Next INTO THE FIRE duty will be copy edits–they should arrive here at the end of September and I need to get them back to the publisher before October 13. Thank goodness for overnight package service!!! Between now and then I will be working on the introductions for the new edition of the original three Read More…
Inside the Writer’s Mind
How, some of you may wonder (I hope you wonder) do writers keep their various story-verses separate while writing, and especially while switching from one to another? Are we all incredibly organized, with minds like a giant university library’s special collections, each in a climate-sealed room with those movable shelves you can “walk” by turning Read More…
Experience Is The Best…Experience?
Or, “Anything that happens to, or near, a writer becomes part of the soup from which stories are dipped.” In the category of “You’re never too old to get hurt in a new way,” I now have an injury I haven’t had before, and would retroactively inflict on a character if I could, just to Read More…
Is It Done Done, or Half-Done?
Only the Editor knows for sure. But I hope it’s done done and gone, because after a time a book being worked on has definitely lost its savor for the writer. Sent it off yesterday. There wasn’t dancing in the street, because I was stiff from sitting at the computer for hours a day and Read More…
Back to the Drawing Board
Editor has requested some more changes. Work is in progress. I am still in confused mode, since my brain had moved on to “project manager for renovations in the house we bought to provide rental property for our son when we croak.” That house–which we have owned for just a hair over a month–now has Read More…