I have a confession to make. My high school nickname was “Zombie.” The moniker was intended as an insult, but I loved it. I dressed in black, dyed my hair a dead ash color and wore ghastly white lipstick. I was goth before goth was cool. My senior year, my family moved to a house next to the town’s graveyard and I’d ask guys to drop me off at the iron gates. When they asked where I really lived, I’d go all spooky. Silly fun.But right now, I’m totally over zombies and all things undead. Why? 1) They stopped being funny. Zombies...
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Sunday, 23 January 2011
That’s the message on a T-shirt I see at writers’ conferences a lot. Apparently it’s been a popular item in the Signals Catalogue for years. It’s interesting that most writers I’ve met who wear them say the shirt was a gift from a friend or family member. I can’t help wondering if those gift-givers weren’t expressing their own anxiety. A lot of people presume all novels are thinly disguised autobiography. But the truth is, most fiction writers don’t like to write about real stuff. If we did, we’d be writing nonfiction, which pays better. OK,...
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Sunday, 16 January 2011
I’ve got to admit that having the Virus that Will Not Die has been taking my thoughts to morbid places. And I think a lot of us may have been dealing with dark thoughts as our emotions process recent disasters—especially the senseless tragedy in Tucson.I notice the first thing we do when somebody commits mass murder these days is look at his social network sites. With good reason—the murderers usually have posted something suitably creepy to feed the media’s curiosity. But what if you did NOT get up this morning planning to make yourself famous...
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
I've just been awarded The Stylish Blogger Award by sci-fi blogger Alex J Cavanaugh ! Rules:1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award... thanks Alex! 2. Share 7 things about yourself3. Pass the award on.7 Things About Me1) I still have an awful cold2) I read 7 New Yorkers yesterday, but the pile doesn't seem to get any smaller.3) I sort of hate the NYT Book Review, but I read it faithfully.4) I still pay for...
Sunday, 9 January 2011
While I’m in bed, sick as a Schnauzer, be-virused and ensnotified, and my brain seems to have gone on a journey somewhere far, far away, one of my favorite authors, Catherine Ryan Hyde, has kindly offered to Pay It Forward with a guest post.Some Notes on Self-Editing by Catherine Ryan HydeI’ll open with the words of cartoonist Joe Martin, creator of the Mr. Boffo comics—“Pay attention to detail: the five most important words in business.”If you’re wondering why that’s funny, you need some tips on finding flaws in your own manuscript. And...
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Charles Dickens has a lot to answer for. With the publication of his Christmas Carol in 1843, he single-handedly made Christmas our biggest cultural holiday. Before the debut of his (self-published) little novella, celebration of the holiday had all but died out in Anglo-Saxon Christendom. The pen is powerful indeed.A Christmas Carol revived the custom of taking the day off work, gathering for big family feasts and getting generous with gifts—remnants of an ancient pagan Solstice celebration which had been meshed with the Nativity story by some...
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