A good workspace can enhance both inspiration and production, but it won’t magically do all the artist’s work. (This fits writing-related workspace issues, too.) One of the recent would-be insults leveled at me, as an artist: I ‘worked out of a kitchen’. The person who said it was possibly deflecting scrutiny from their own unprofessional…
Read More Craft Credo #3: Work is more important than workspaceSinger in Rhunshan is now in its more or less final form, hovering around 16,000 words/75 pages. Too big for a short story now, but respectable for a novelette. It is a romantic fantasy action/adventure with discreet hints of a male/male/female love triangle (but no actual sex in this part of the story), and a…
Read More ‘Singer in Rhunshan’ novelette inches closer to publicationI just looked (for the first time in years) at the backlog of letters I sent to my then-literary agent back in the mists of antiquity – roughly two decades ago. Our association began when one of the founding agents heard me reading a contest-winning fantasy short story* at a big international SFF convention. It…
Read More Yes, I was that cluelessSince I have snarked about cover art before (and the current fad for more-or-less competent photocollages overlaid with text), I thought this would be a good time and place to tout a cover designer who goes well beyond average with that medium. Erin Lark is a writer, a friend, and a fellow nutcase over on…
Read More Erin Lark Cover ArtAmong my brain’s many flaws is the complete inability to write a decent first draft. I write and revise at the same time. I’m doing it right now, since there have already been three versions of the first sentence. A dozen, if I count that I am writing on a tablet today. Otgerwise, all ny…
Read More The Revision Curse…Okay, okay, there was the socially questionable and morally bankrupt comic book I wrote when I was maybe seven, but that didn’t last longer than fifteen minutes, a stern warning, and the ten feet to Mom’s shredder. It doesn’t count. Nor do the 130K of various fan fiction stories I’ve written over the years. What…
Read More My first real try at self-publishingI do most of my reading online these days, but I still love the physical feel of a real book in my hands. (With book artists, that’s probably a given.) I really like bookmarks – the civilized answer to turning down pages. I’ve made them from silver sheet, carved bone, and antique ivory piano keys,…
Read More Bookmarks and other anachronismsA special welcome to John Tristan, a UK author who is becoming a rising star through his M/M novels from Loose Id and Carina Press. I first stumbled across his work when I read his Loose Id debut Forest of Glass, then A Stranger in Skoria and A Slave in Skoria. Next came The Adorned,…
Read More John Tristan interview (adult content advisory)I am fortunate to have a piece in this exhibition: Watershed Tapestry, seen below. I’m in the company of some of the most well-known book artists of our time, in a unique gallery devoted to book and text-based arts. The show runs November 15, 2013 to December 28, 2013 23 SANDY GALLERY • 623 NE…
Read More Now showing: EcoEditions at 23 Sandy GalleryUpdated 6-19-2017: Brass Stars has been revised and expanded, and A. G. Carpenter now has the dark and gory (and gorgeous) results here. Her new cover isn’t shabby, either. *** A fun debut today for my friend A. G. Carpenter, who is a far better (and more prolific) writer than I am. Remember the name,…
Read More ‘Brass Stars’ by A. G. CarpenterJohn Paul Miller 4-23-1918 to 3-1-2013 A belated but no less heartfelt obit for one of the heroes of modern goldsmithing. Followed by the reasons why I think luminaries like him – in any field – are incredibly important to artists just learning their craft. When I was a total neophyte fussing around with the…
Read More When a kick in the pants is good for you (adult language advisory)Filmmaker Dan Perez has some great comments about how damaging that one word can be to an artist’s career. I’ve included the LinkedIn discussion as well, because it continues the conversation. In short, if you are any kind of creative person trying to make a living at your art – even just enjoying it as…
Read More ‘Exposure’ comes in many flavorsOver on AbsoluteWrite.com, author Richard Garfinkle had some great things to say about worldbuilding – from a reader’s point of view. “One of the things I often say at writer’s workshops is that readers who get into the story will often push the edges of what is written. They’ll wonder about the lives of the…
Read More More about worldbuildingToday’s art-related Public Service Announcement is all about a company called Alien Skin, and a filter package called Snap Art. I’ve been lucky enough to use versions of this going all the way back to its introduction. I recently had the honor of helping beta-test Version 4. Wow. Okay, backtracking here. This will mean nothing…
Read More Art PSA: Alien Skin Snap Art 4I have no idea if gold prices will ever drop enough to let me actually make these (or if I’ll make ’em out of ruby CZ and copper and have them plated gold instead), but here is one digital sketch of the Iron Man earcuffs I described in a recent* fan fiction piece. Readers wrote…
Read More Iron Man earcuff and a cosplay rant (adult link)This is a re-blog of a great interview I just found, courtesy of Publishers Weekly: Steven Zacharius of Kensington Publishing Corp. talks frankly about changes in print and digital publishing, the harsh reality of low sales for the majority of self-published authors, and what lies ahead for one of the last big domestically-owned publishers duking…
Read More Kensington Publishing Corp.Tune in today as J.J. Abrams capitalizes on the concepts of interactive storytelling, deep maps, secret histories, and some really fabulous book production. …Not that I’m snarking too much, because I am always thrilled when this form of interactive art media snags more willing victims. I am even looking forward to reading this newest addition.…
Read More Hey, look, Someone Important discovered Book Arts!This started as a simple review of Alfonso Cuarón’s new movie Gravity. As usual with my posts, it morphed into something else. In this case, a study of three very different sci-fi films, and only one that lived up to its potential. First: Gravity. The commercials had to be dumbed-down for a general audience, I’m afraid.…
Read More Gravity, Elysium, and Titan AEOkay, okay, so I did just announce that I want to do a few more standalone novels, for the challenge in brevity. One of my fantasy favorites, Patricia McKillip, has done nothing but standalone novels for the last decade or so. Even though there are series I wish she could finish. (Pat, are you there?…
Read More ‘Saga’ is not a four letter wordTime to dig out an old but fun project, and subject it to public ridicule: Flame Banner, from 1995, rebuilt slightly in 2003. A very few people might have seen the early version of this hanging in the 1995 DragonCon art show (or maybe 1996, I don’t remember.) Dimensions: approx. 60 h” x 11 w”…
Read More Flame Banner