Writing Advice 2/9

Apr 22, 2017

The Best Little Writing Conference in the West

What do Steven Barnes, Agent DongWon Song, and indie publishing guru Anthea Lawson Sharp all have in common? A: They’ll all be in...

Nov 15, 2016

Worldbuilding with Tananarive Due

Photo by Daniel Ebon For our concluding interview in my Ways into Worldbuilding series, I am honored to welcome a distinguished voice in...

Nov 2, 2016

Worldbuilding with Sharon Shinn

Sharon Shinn has published 26 novels, one collection, and assorted pieces of short fiction since her first book came out in 1995. Among...

Oct 11, 2016

Worldbuilding with Django Wexler

Guest posts for the Ways into Worldbuilding series will appear on two more Wednesdays. This latest interview is Django Wexler graduated...

Oct 4, 2016

Worldbuilding with Louise Marley

Louise Marley is a former concert and opera singer, and the author of 18 novels of fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction. A...

Sep 28, 2016

Worldbuilding with C.S.E. Cooney

Guest posts for the Ways into Worldbuilding series will appear most Wednesdays through early November. This week’s guest is C.S.E....

Sep 20, 2016

Kristine Kathryn Rusch on Worldbuilding

Guest posts for Ways into Worldbuilding will appear most Wednesdays through early November. Today’s post is from one of our industry’s...

Sep 6, 2016

Worldbuilding with Martha Wells

Guest posts for the Ways into Worldbuilding series will appear most Wednesdays through early November. Today I welcome one of my favorite...

Aug 30, 2016

Worldbuilding with L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

Guest posts for the Ways into Worldbuilding series will appear most Wednesdays through early November. We lead off with L. E. Modesitt,...

Aug 22, 2016

One Step at a Time

Today I hit a muddy patch in the novel. Not exactly a brick wall. Not really a bout of writer’s block, but a serious resistance to doing...

Jul 18, 2016

Picky questions on the novel

For writers, what is the hardest part of a novel? Maybe it’s page 1 and page 400–and many big chunks in between. Some books go like that....

May 10, 2016

Generating Ideas

It’s a perverted fact of the universe that writers are sometimes stumped about what to write. Give them a snappy first line in a timed...

Apr 5, 2016

The Door Into Scene

Scenes are the building blocks of the long story. One simple step can save your next scene. Even with the loosest of plot outlines,...

Feb 22, 2016

Aphids in the story

Have you got aphids in your story? destroying the pacing inserting flab into lines and pages sending the plot wandering The story may be...

Nov 19, 2015

Discouraged writer walks into a bar…

. . . and it was full of other discouraged writers. OK, lame joke. But sometimes you just have to laugh. It’s that aggravating. Writing,...

Sep 2, 2015

On fear of cons

I’m recently back from WorldCon (Sasquan) in Spokane. There were panels on topics related to books, writing, science, fandom, and issues...

Aug 6, 2015

Got a question?

If you have a question or two you’d like to ask me about my writing or writing in general, now’s a good time. upcoming books writing...

Apr 2, 2015

Why you Really need a writing conference

The weekend of May 16th I’m helping out with my favorite local writing conference. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you really...

Jan 14, 2015

Character Through Line

Sean Astin as Sam Gamgee. Can you describe your character’s essence or their raison d’etre, in a short phrase? How about Sam Gamgee’s...

Dec 31, 2014

Kay’s Best SF/F/H Reads of 2014

Here’s my list. The SF/F/H books I enjoyed the most out of the–um, hundreds?–of books I read this year! Not all published in 2014. We Are...