It’s a good news, bad news situation. (Well, baddish news.) First, the good news: my agent informs me that DAW wants to buy my proposed fantasy novel, currently titled Magebane. The bad news: I’ll have to write it under a pseudonym. As this is explained to me, my SF novels with DAW–Lost in Translation, Marseguro, …
Tag: writing
A tale with two openings
I’d like your opinion. Which of the following two opening sentences (for a somewhat steampunkish YA science fiction novel) intrigues you more, and why? Just after the the Amazing Belgrani made himself disappear in a puff of purple smoke, and while the stage was being set for the supposedly spectacular high-wire fire-eating act of the …
Galleys of Terra Insegura arrive
The galleys of Terra Insegura showed up today for proofing. That’s always exciting. It means I can now find all the mistakes I should have caught last time around, and worry about all the things I should have maybe changed but are too major to change now. Fun! It’s always interesting to see what text …
High-school writers’ magazine I edited now online
windScript, the magazine of writing by Saskatchewan high school writers that I edited for the Saskatchewan Writers Guild this year, is now online in PDF format. Check out the whole thing, but here’s what I wrote as the introduction: Writing is an act of courage. It takes courage to try to turn your thoughts and …
A defense of "hokey" endings
I’ve been enjoying Andrew Breitbart’s new BigHollywood group blog very much, and liked this quote, from John Nolte’s commentary on the Alfred Hitchcock film Notorious, in which he takes issue with those who think its ending is “hokey”: “Hokey” isn’t the result of a story point, “hokey” is the result of the execution of the …
Robert J. Sawyer to be writer-in-residence at the Canadian Light Source
I’m tickled pink with the announcement that Robert J. Sawyer, a friend of mine and Canada’s most acclaimed science fiction writer, will be writer-in-residence at the Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon this June and July. If you’re an aspiring writer, book a time to talk to Rob. I twice took part in his classes on …
Hugo nominations open
Hard on the heels of the announcement that Aurora Award nominations are open comes the announcement that the nominating period for the Hugo Awards has begun. (Why, yes, Marseguro is eligible to be nominated. Thank you for thinking of it!) The Hugos work differently than the Auroras, though. In order to nominate you must be …
Aurora Awards nominations open
Nominations are now open, and will remain so until February 28, for the Aurora Awards, Canada’s premiere science fiction awards. Anyone who is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident in Canada can nominate free of charge. You can nominate your favorite works by Canadian or permanently-resident-in-Canada authors online using this form. My novel Marseguro is …
A book reviewers’ linkup meme
John at the SF book review site Grasping for Wind posts: My list of fantasy and sf book reviewers is woefully out of date. I need your help to fix that. But rather than go through the hassle of having you send me recommendations or sticking them in comments, what you can do is take …
"Please forgive me for not accepting your rejection letter…"
From a long (and well-worth reading in its entirety) article by Brian Doyle in the Kenyon Review ruminating on rejection letters, comes this example of an author’s (Stefan Merkan’s) response to a rejection–a response that speaks for every author ever stung by one: “Please forgive me for not accepting your rejection letter. At this time …
A bunch of stuff I wrote about biomass hits the Web
Earlier this year I wrote a lot of fact sheets about various aspects of biomass for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Those fact sheets are now online: you can drill down from the main page. The largest section of what I wrote dealt with agricultural residue. Here’s what’s on that page, with links leading to more …
Terra Insegura revisions complete!
Whee! I just emailed the revised manuscript of Terra Insegura to my editor, Sheila Gilbert, at DAW Books. It’s much better than the original version, thanks, as always, to Sheila’s excellent editorial input. So now you can look for it on schedule on May 5, with that amazing Stephan Martinere cover. (Oh, look, there it …
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