Tag: writing

Weight-loss through writing?

[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads//2012/01/Losing-Weight-Through-Writing.mp3[/podcast] One of the risks of being a writer is a tendency to fall into sedentarianism (which isn’t a word, but ought to be; clearly, it refers to a religious belief that the best way to avoid sin is to do as little as possible). Aside from those keeners who have set up combination desks/treadmills …

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Saturday Special From the Vaults: There’s A Puppy in My Pocket

A new regular feature: stuff from the vaults, presented each Saturday. At the Mackenzie Art Gallery, the “vaults” (that’s a picture of them at the left) are where they keep the permanent collection, most of which is not on display at any given time. Here at edwardwillett.com, the vaults are the file folders on my …

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A couple of more Magebane reviews…

First up, Just a Guy Who Reads Books begins his review by saying: Chane combines some steampunk sensibilities with a magic world, infuses the whole thing with some potent political plotting, and presents the result – a fantastic novel. And finishes… Ultimately, a highly satisfying novel. I’d love to see something further in the world …

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The science of ebooks vs. print books

[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads//2011/10/Ebooks-vs-Print-Books.mp3[/podcast] Once upon a time, the word “book” meant only one thing: a stack of paper printed with text and bound together along one edge. These days, though, the word “book” has developed two meanings. You can still read a bound-stack-of-paper book, but you can also read a book without ever touching anything that was …

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My Mayor’s Mega-Minute Reading Challenge speech

As writer-in-residence at the Regina Public Library, I was asked to give a brief speech at today’s launch of Regina’s annual Mayor’s Mega-Minute Reading Challenge at Jack MacKenzie School. And rather than ad-lib, as is my wont, I actually wrote something down (not that I read it word for word). Here it is: *** Hi, …

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The vernacular of fiction

[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/08/The-Vernacular-of-Fiction.mp3[/podcast] It should come as no surprise to anyone reading this column that I write fiction in addition to non-fiction: specifically, science fiction and fantasy for both adults and young adults. Which is why Ben Zimmer’s recent article in The New York Times’s Sunday Book Review, describing the findings of lexicographers using modern computer databases …

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DAW buys my new YA series!

Big news this week: DAW Books, publisher of my three science fiction novels Lost in Translation, Marseguro and Terra Insegura, and my upcoming Lee Arthur Chane fantasy Magebane, has bought the first two-books of a new YA fantasy series, the first book of which is called Masks. Here’s the “high-concept” description from my proposal: In …

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Coming in April: The Helix War

I had a phone call recently from my editor at DAW Books, Sheila Gilbert, letting me know that DAW wants to bring out an omnibus edition of Marseguro and Terra Insegura in April 2012. We batted around titles and settled on The Helix War. It’s still a ways until April, but lo and behold, I …

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Magebane galleys are here!

Which means I get to spend the next few days re-reading my own book, and hoping the only errors I see are little ones that are easily corrected, and not major “what-was-I-thinking-aargh-it’s-too-late-to-fix-it-now!” ones. Here’s the title and byline from the title page. I love the little airship logo, which appears at the start of each …

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The Space-Time Continuum: Science fiction poetry

My latest column for Freelance, the newsletter of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild… *** In his novel Time Enough for Love, science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein included a number of aphorisms supposedly taken from the notebooks of his centuries-old central character, Lazarus Long. One of these I have ever since taken a kind of mischievous …

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Magebane marketing

New American Library (under whose umbrella my publisher DAW Books falls) has distributed its catalogue to booksellers for its October releases, which include Magebane. This image shows the relevant page. The text reads: Four centuries ago, Magic was banished from the land… that May be about to change. Four centures ago, the world changed. A …

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I’m going to be the Regina Public Library’s writer-in-residence!

Well, it looks like the official announcement has been made: I’m going to be writer-in-residence at the Regina Public Library this September 1 through the end of next May. The Regina LeaderPost has the story here. I’m very excited about it. It’s a paid position, $35,000 over the nine months, and 70 percent of my …

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