Reading a Connie Willis novel is like drowning. Her very first paragraph is a rip tide that lets you get a breath just often enough not to drown you. You spend a lot of time treading water, but the liquid feels so lovely against your skin, a blood warm suspension, and you pray for breath…
The art of writing dialogue I have always enjoyed reading Heinlein’s books, but it is his dialogue that holds my attention the most. His characters play with words and by doing so demonstrate relationships and conditions. This excerpt from The Cat that Walks Through Walls is a great example of how his dialogue clearly separated…
Always looking at a master’s work before tackling your own world building is a good way to not just see the process in action but immerse yourself in it, so when you dive into your own work, the spell has been cast, a sense of the cape of good building has been settled like…
The pen is my sword. I have written before that writers are readers. We read for our own enjoyment and to learn techniques, both through exposure to well-written work and through examination of the works we read. Lu Chi’s Wen Fu (which I have cited in the past) said it best: When cutting an axe…
Read an E-Book Week I love Read an E-book Week at Smashwords, and as of March 2 thru March 8 it has begun. I along with a huge number of other writers make use of this opportunity to invite readers to check out our books. Take a look and find a new author to enjoy…
All me, just different. Like most writers, I have a day job. I am a teacher. I am also a wife and mother, so adding a writing life just increases confusion to the standard complicated life of this everywoman. I have to keep them from overlapping. My teaching is about the student, not about what…
I write time travel novels, and one of the features that stands out when a character travels in time is fitting in with the culture. That includes clothing, behavior, hair styles, social interaction and such. Since my characters move about in time, I have had to research to make sure that Mick is wearing the…
ring by ring, we build brevity, depth, complexity, simplicity Every new skill or bit of knowledge we learn brings with it that usage curve that starts out complex, and as we gain understanding and mastery, we simplify and integrate. That applies to life and work in general, but it is also the essence of growing…
