Warning: if you are not a crafty type, this will be a very boring post. I’ll forgive you if you go look at pictures of Grumpy Cat instead. Twice a year, I have the honor of making the seventeen award ribbons for the Tempe Festival of the Arts, a major regional art fair in the…
Read More New fiber art: Tempe Festival of the Arts award ribbonsOver two years in, I decided it was time to change out headers on the Blue Night blog. I’m curious: all five of you who regularly read this thing, which header art do you like? Here’s the old one. Here’s the new one. Same world, same motif, probably the very same night – just…
Read More opinions on the new header…or, another ranty essay about word counts. Rant Part One: A couple of weeks ago, a 54K novel of mine went out on submission. It got some kind notice from some important people, all of whom said the same thing: ‘It’s good, but too short for print. Can it be 85K?’ Oh, but I hear…
Read More Length matters…Here’s a new writing how-to book from author Suz deMello, for the rest of you poor fools trapped in NaNo-land. (I am, too, I’m just not formally keeping a wordcount on the three manuscripts I’m trying to hammer out over the next 45 days.) I have two reasons for giving blog space to this one.…
Read More Plotting and Planning, by Suz deMello(Six paragraphs from my current WIP, the sequel to my debut novel Moro’s Price. I’m posting them on Saturday night because I intend to be comatose on Sunday morning. Enjoy.) *** “Dear girl, I’m sorry deprive you of fresh berries,” said the articulated, eight-foot-high steel skeleton waiting for Syene in Fortunero’s docking bay. Benny’s exo-chassis…
Read More Sneak Peek Sunday snippet: Moro’s Shield…To know a manuscript (that has earned an almost career-wrecking place in my life, that I spent a ridiculous amount of time writing, and that I wonder if anyone besides me, three beta readers, and my agent will even care about when the dust clears) – is going out on submission this week. To people…
Read More What it feels like…Emily Asher-Perrin has a great post concerning the Marvel Comics Universe Loki’s apparently-canon genderfluidity. Emily brings up the point that gender is not about sex acts but identity. Loki-as-a-woman is not presented in the MCU as a guy who sometimes seems to look like a woman – but simply is female, a person who refers to…
Read More GenderfluidityI love the digital era. In the great old days I’d have typed everything, made carbon or photocopies, and spent way too much in postage. I’d have waited months for news on a manuscript. Now, for the most part, I deal with Word doc format files and rapid email communication. Such as this morning, when…
Read More The manuscript game pt 2Apparently, there’s a hot fanfiction debate I’ve missed. I’ve accidentally avoided the fracas on Tumblr and non-AO3 fansites, and I don’t engage that much on Twitter and other ‘instant’ social media. People seem to hate original characters (OCs) in fanfiction. The mere inclusion of a tag of ‘OC’ in a story somehow seems to bring out the…
Read More Fanfiction and original characters