My preview of Saskatchewan Express‘s December show Deck the Halls, Broadway Style is in today’s Regina LeaderPost. It begins: Saskatchewan Express does a December show in Regina every year, but it doesn’t always do a Christmas show. This year, it is, and it opens tonight at the Shumiatcher Theatre in the MacKenzie Art Gallery. “I …
Tag: writing
On the occasion of Madeleine L’Engle’s 90th birthday…
…her granddaughter has posted some lovely and moving thoughts. Madeleine L’Engle, from the moment I read A Wrinkle in Time as a child, has been one of my all-time favorite writers. I can’t say how she’s influenced me–there’s not much relationship between one of her elegant stories and my novels, at least on the surface–but …
Novels ending badly
I’ve occasionally posted about the annual Bulwer-Lytton contest for the worst beginnings for novels. Now the Washington Post has inverted that and run a contest for the worst possible endings to novels. (Via Scott Edelman.) The winner: As the wail of the nearing sirens shook him awake, Todd rose from the charred remains of Rensfield …
Thus sayeth the Preacher:
“Of the making of revisions to your latest science fiction novel there is no end, and much editing is a weariness of the flesh.”
The Devil’s Writing Dictionary, Part 2…
…has now made its appearance at Lynn Viehl’s site. A couple of more selections I like as I continue revisions to Terra Insegura: Novel: a rambling, proportionally disorganized fictional prose narrative of considerable length (usually 60,000 words or more) that typically possesses some semblance of a plot (unless literary, see Literature) that is presented in …
Inspired by my own cover art
This sentence didn’t exist in Terra Insegura until today’s revisions, though the scene it’s part of did. Compare it to the cover art: They watched as Karl and the rest of his tiny band of followers exited the shuttle and headed across the vast flat expanse of the spaceport toward the looming towers of the …
Lynn Viehl’s The Devil’s Writing Dictionary: Part 1
Lynn Viehl, who has previously graced us with The Devil’s Publishing Dictionary, now offers The Devil’s Writing Dictionary Part I. Lots of great entries, but since I’m working (okay, technically I’m blogging at the moment, not working, but you know what I mean) on the revisions for Terra Insegura, the ones that struck me were: …
Another taste of that other Edward Willett
This seems to be my week for coming across complete facsimiles of my 19th-century namesake’s books. Hard on the heels of the his biography of Ulysses S. Grant, I’ve found a facsimile of one of his more typical titles, a “dime novel” called “Wide-Awake George, the Boy Pioneer.” You can read the whole thing in …
That other biography-writing Edward Willett
I am not the first Edward Willett to write books; nor am I the first to write biographies. Long before I squalled my first cries in the foothills of the mountains of New Mexico; long before I first set crayon to paper as a boy of six in the public schools of Tulia, Texas; long …
Another satisfied reader!
A Science Fiction Book Club member writes on the club’s page for Marseguro: “Good read, strong character…I enjoyed this book all in one evening. It was too good to put down. Strong female character and good evolution of all the central characters.” There have been enough good reviews from various sources now I’m starting to …
The Plot Synopsis Project II
Last week, I posted one of my successful query letters as part of the Query Project, organized by my fellow DAW author Joshua Palmetier. Joshua has previously organized The Plot Synopsis Project, in which published authors posted synopses they used to seel books, and now he’s gone and done it again–and I’m pleased to be …
My latest live walk and vlog
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