2021, in part.

 I may run late, but I do plan to do an overview on 2021.  

For a brief recap of the past six months, I finally had knee surgery for my right knee, which had two tears in the meniscus. I'm just over two months out from that, and although walking is far, far better now -- stairs, not so much.  

Doing stairs is weirdly random too; I've managed to go into the basement a few times, but other days, my knee[s] will freak out.  Definitely will need to see physical therapists for that next month.

Almost to 2022!

 What a year it's been. I kept hoping I joked when I'd say, "Year Two of the pandemic" while I feared I was not joking. And sure enough, it was not a joke, just a faint hope, swiftly disproved. 

Angry Robot's female writers: 2013.

Considering how some outcry existed this year about oh noes, men don't get into the Hugo awards anymore, but they write! as if it was men and not everyone else who had been kept out for so long, I thought it was a nice theme to discover sff by women. Maybe I'm biased?

Nah!


So back when I was freelancing for Angry Robot Books, sometimes I'd read their blog a lot, sometimes not.

I am rather an erratic person on stuff like that. Also, have you been on the Internet? It's wicked huge!

I missed this post back in 2013: Discover some great SF by women writers.  Where Lee said, "We’d like to help promote some great science fiction by our own female writers, to show the incredible quality of SF that can be enjoyed, whatever your gender."

Two books, alike in... something.

The first book I officially proofread was a long time ago now. :)

And it was this book. In late 2007, Brothers in Arms was the only Vorkosigan novel I hadn't read. I got a copy of the original novel from PaperbackBookSwap, and set to proofreading.

I had a blast.

The first hardcover edition of Brothers in Arms was published in August 2008 in time for the Worldcon, Denvention 3, where Lois was the GoH.

Fandom welcome -- via Austenland.

Brief summary... 

Maybe you didn't expect this slant about fandom, but it's about you, about me, about friendship. And about Austenland. No knowledge of the book nor the movie required.  

Links at end of post.

Jane says:  "Okay, since we have to spend so much time rehearsing this thing... just....
Let's try not to annoy each other." 

Not looking at her, Mr. Nobley replies: "You don't annoy me.
You make me nervous." 

Some c/e highlights...

I do work on a wide variety within genre. Horror, dark fiction, GLBTQ sf/f romances, fantasy, sf/f alternate universes, YA, urban fantasies, paranormal fantasies, and much more. Just because I enjoyed working on a project doesn't mean you'll automatically like reading it, of course.

So I highly recommend checking genre first -- unless you, like me, have widely catholic tastes in reading (catholic the adjective, not the religion). If you like being surprised, then just leap in. That's what I do. :D

=-=

In 2014, I was offered Tekken: The Dark History of Mishima. That was fun. Only time I've ever been allowed to use "cartoon physics" as a guideline.

Tekken was translated into English, by an editor I knew... and who'd recruited me for my first paying gig as a freelancer. I really enjoyed working again with her.

Editing costs.

It's interesting how people vary from the "But -- this just takes you reading it, right?" to the "I want you to catch all the things in my writing!" mindsets.  With, of course, variations all along the range there.

This includes editors too.  I have had editors who thought I just took a few moments to copyedit, that it wasn't a process that involved much time at all.

Clave's this weekend!

October waxes, as does the Interweb.  Sigh.

The Sobering Saga of Myrtle the Manuscript.

Quality of slush pile items, a discussion on Absolute Write.


When in doubt, volunteer by Christie Yant.

A 2010 link collection post by Amanda Rutter; interesting in that it contains the 2010 online discussion about sexual harassment,* done by a former editor, among other things... but OT, there's the Mad Hatter on steampunk.


* For a lot of great advice about how to help anyone being harassed, ANYONE, read Brigid Keeley, who writes about this very topic.

Because books.

And it's a cool image, isn't it?

Tweets, Tor, Puppies, writing.

Fascinating article by @Suw about @torbooks' recent Social Media difficulties: http://t.co/fgL8BWCeE6

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) June 10, 2015

My thoughts on the Tor mess, a.k.a. Theo Beale jerks people around again. http://t.co/t0jZ13r3KD

— Jim C. Hines (@jimchines) June 11, 2015

Eric Flint on the Sad Puppies' latest [June 2015].

Jim Hines:  Bigots, Bullies, and Enablers.  (FYI:  regarding tags, I also count bullies as predators.)

We lost Terry Pratchett today.

The last Tweet may make you laugh -- that's why it's at the end -- because you may have been weeping ever since you found out.  Like me.

How to be a writer, by Terry Pratchett: pic.twitter.com/vqc3wzwiRo
— The Beer Nut (@thebeernut) March 12, 2015

Jim Hines made a storify of Terry's final Tweets here.  If you read any of Terry's books, these three will make you weep.

Jo Walton's anecdote about Terry Pratchett refusing a Hugo nomination is, well, both very Terry and very teary. http://t.co/6geWR1rGrn
— Ferrett Steinmetz (@ferretthimself) March 12, 2015

Links of interest...

Kameron Hurley: The Privilege to Publish; the Power to Persevere at Locus; also Spotlight on: David Pomerico, Editorial Director.

PW's March picks of last week.


Publishing's Big 6:  Who are they? from Scott Marlowe's blog in 2010.

Tobias Buckell's Together, let’s break the Amazon monopoly on Kindles! in 2010.  It isn't entirely what you think it is...  and Toby's piece shows his brilliance. [Context:  this is about the Macmillan-Amazon negotiations of 2010, and I've linked to Toby's blog there.]

He definitely demonstrates the weirdness of the original statement!

Monopsony, Amazon, Colbert, and you.

Oh, Amazonia... :/

Amazon closes a contract with one major book publisher (not that one, though) via Melville House.  (Storystream of the Hachette-Amazon battle at the Verge.)

Do I believe the worst of Amazon?  Yep.  I know I'm not alone.

So does Stephen Colbert.  No, really.  Back in June, he replied to them on his show:  Amazon vs. Hachette and with Sherman Alexie (see the Verge).  Because Stephen's a Hachette author.


Paul Krugman explains in Amazon’s Monopsony Is Not O.K. at the NYT.

Of the many great links Paul has in his op-ed, there is the New Republic's Amazon Must Be Stopped: It's too big. It's cannibalizing the economy. It's time for a radical plan.

Which tells you a lot right there.  But you read it to see all the scary bits yourself.

A little ramble back to dear Gen...

Bless you, Goodreads fans of Megan Whalen Turner!

Because I didn't know there was another story about Eugenides.  A little one.  It is called "Thief!" and hanging on her own website.  Whether or not you've read the Thief series yet, check it out.

Amazonia, at it again.

Ah, Amazon.  Bullying is such a great way to get what you want... or is it?

Remember 2010 when Amazon decided to bulldoze Macmillan?  No?

They're doing it to Hachette now.  So if you can't get your book by Stephen Colbert, for example, that's why.  Because Amazon thinks that keeping you from buying his book, and other Hachette authors' books, is a really clever negotiating tactic.

. @nkjemisin Given AMZNs near-monopoly position I think it's an anti-trust violation, but the US anti-trust regulators are broken.
— Charlie Stross (@cstross) May 9, 2014

Sarah Rees Brennan, Ilona Andrews.

Interesting things from interesting authors who are intriguing me...

Sarah Rees Brennan

The Internet's A Stage

Untold April Snippet

The first is her blog [LJ post from October 2011], the second is her blog plus fiction [post from April 2013].

Sarah's blog mentioned Ilona Andrews and here is the link for that 2011 post, Yet More About Reviews ... which is also about what happens when you become an author and it is all your fault.

Curious?  Go read it and find out what Ilona is talking about.

Paranoia when working...

In 2010 I was in the middle of editing a book... and my old desktop PC died.  From malware attacks.

It had survived many moves with me.  [Don't ask how many.]  We'd gone to live in Vegas, my old PC and I, then moved back across country to Michigan.


So today I've done some more research on my current tech problems.  On my new Acer desktop, which I bought in 2010.

I thought this was malware.  Nope; yay!

It may be the hard drive.  Not yay.  Not at all.

OTOH, my marvelous tech adviser at Chicon 7 -- hi, CKD! -- gave me lots of wonderful advice.  One was to get regular backups scheduled to an external hard drive.  I did these things.

This is far better than saving to a flash drive and having to readjust back and forth.  Computers get tetchy about that.

Paying it forward: Links and tips.

Five Overlooked SF/F/H Books of 2013  (Must point out that I copyedited the first book in the B and N list. And it's a wonderfully fun book.)

Waterstones offers Twauthors – The best authors on Twitter


Over on Goodreads, Steven Saus tells us The Write Agenda Can Teach You How To Avoid Untrustworthy People... Like Themselves. If you read nothing else, go read that. It will help you with contracts, with understanding the behavior of the anonymous troll -- and the vanity press publishers -- and the many MANY scammers out there preying on the new authors and future authors.

Writer Beware is a major example of paying it forward.


A Few Things a Writer Should Probably Do at Least Once from Doctor Doyle.  Since I'm in SCA, I can tell you that yes, these would indeed help you.  Have I done them all?  No.

As a copy editor, guns and other weapons are something I tend to research a LOT.

Shh: a simple tip for talking about race.

Bonus:  Until this paragraph, this entire post was an example of paragraphing style.  [Which Nero Wolfe will tell you all about in Plot It Yourself; you should read that.]  I tend to do mine a certain way, and I vary it deliberately while writing to make it easier on readers.  And just for variety's sake too.

Writing: November 2013.

It's NaNoWriMo time.  Which I never remember until the writers around me either vanish... because they're writing away for NaNo... or because half the Interweb lights up with people talking about their NaNo goals.

I'd like to invite folks, as an alternative to NaNoWriMo, to join me in writing in every spare second, every day, for the rest of your life.

— Myke Cole (@MykeCole) October 16, 2013

Open Door 2013 is still going on at Angry Robot.  Hurry, you have until the end of the year!

Are you writing yet?  Have you submitted yet?

Oh, c'mon now.  I wanted you to get done so I could hold your book in my hands.  (Like these AR authors, some of whose books I have indeed held in my hands.)  And read the books, of course.

How much longer do I have to WAIT????

Yeah, I really said that, and it is how my reader-mind works.  Doesn't yours?

P.S.  I know some of the Inkbots, fka the Anxious Appliances. I met several at Chicon 7.  8)

Six favorite authors.

Pamela Dean, who wrote The Secret Country series.  (And Tam Lin too.)  8)  Here's the text of a talk she gave in 2008.  Includes quotes from my favorite books!


J.F. Lewis, who wrote the Void City series.  The first book, Staked, has one of the best first lines ever.

Somewhere in the middle of my rant
it occurred to me that I'd killed
whoever it was I'd been yelling at,
so arguing was no longer important.

Emma Bull.  I pretty much love everything Emma's ever written.  I reread them frequently, but the ones I read the most are Finder, Bone Dance, and War for the Oaks (Green Man review).

Hell, War... is one of the ones I've memorized whole pieces of, the way I have with The Secret Country books.  And Zelazny's Lord of Light... and...

Finder, it should be noted, is part of the Bordertown shared-world mythos.  Which you should also check out.


Patricia A. McKillip (a fan-run site here).  First discovered through her The Riddle-Master of Hed series.  [Mom bought me the second book, thinking I'd like it; she was entirely correct].  I can reel off favorite books of hers the same way I can with Diana Wynne Jones:  effortlessly.

Start practically anywhere, except for Winter Rose.


Kelly McCullough, who wrote the WebMage series -- link will take you to story synopses, so be warned!  I adore this series.  If you loved the Amber books by Zelazny, odds are strong you'll love these too.  Sass and snark levels:  high.


And Steven Brust.  :)  Because I do love his writing.  By choice, I didn't get a replacement copy of Agyar until I had the original cover (thanks to my mom's searching).

I love the Paarfi books ["The end made me cry, Steve!" "That's what Pamela said..."] and Cowboy Feng, and Vlad, and To Reign in Hell... well, you get the idea.

Considering that I finally read Steve's novels after I began working for him...  I'd only read one.  But I'd read half his short fiction before, and I knew he was a favorite author because nearly all the Scribblies are favorites of mine.


All of these series are named for the first book in said series.  Unless I've said otherwise.  And all of these authors are currently living as of this writing.  Unlike the mystery authors I read.