To the author: kudos!

Dear Maureen Johnson, thank you. I am really glad I found your book in my library, and more -- they appear to have the first three books!

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.)

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.

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.

The Business Rusch: Submissions and agents. Also publishers...

Kristine Kathryn Rusch says:
August 13, 2012 at 12:17 pm 

All publishers accept submissions. They don’t dare not to. They have to look. (They don’t want to miss the next Harry Potter.) Check out Dean Wesley Smith’s blog, Killing The Sacred Cows of Publishing. Start with this one, but look at the TOC as well. Good luck!

Yes, this is from her 2012 post on The Business Rusch: The Agent Clause (Deal Breakers 2012).

Check it out if you're writing. In fact, read as much of The Business Rusch as possible. It will help you understand current publishing, the past of book publishing, and a great deal more. I cannot tell you enough; just go.

In fact, here's her latest, The Business Rusch: Unintended Consequences. Her blog posts on Thursdays.

Ebooks, libraries, and... ebooks' Netflix?

The Netflix for books is here, it’s mobile, and it makes Amazon look old

Now that's something interesting!

Alas, only for iThings thus far.  But it's new.  Give it time.  I hope it sticks around.


Cory Doctorow: Libraries and E-books

I really recommend reading Cory's posts over at Locus.  This one in particular, since it's about ebooks, and how the publishers need to work WITH libraries.  They aren't the enemy.  Libraries are the friends of both publishers and readers.

If you want to know more about helping libraries here in the States, check out the ALA's Authors for Library Ebooks site.  If you read at all, have any favorite authors, do go look at that site, please!

Look for this badge and help authors and readers encourage publishers to help us all keep reading.

Not right.

So I read The Diary of Anne Frank for the first time yesterday.

At one point, I accidentally turned to the reader guide, which was in the middle of this edition.  And I found out what happened to her.

I was horrified. 

I keep thinking it was a Hans Christian Andersen ending. 

I like very few of his fairy tales, partly because he tends to break the contract with the reader.  Also, I honestly think he hated human beings and meant -- or expected -- that they should all suffer.  Yes, that could be due to his upbringing or religion; right now, that's just how her story's end strikes me.

No wonder I enjoy mysteries.  Lois Bujold calls them fantasies of justice.  Because in a mystery I expect fairness.  That suffering will be rewarded, prisoners will be freed...

Or as Oscar Wilde puts it:  "The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily."

The bad are punished, not the good -- unless the story's a different sort of tragedy...  Remember that bit in Good Omens, when the authors suggest that perhaps your own belief about tropical fish, and that child growing up happy are preferable? 

I feel like that.  As if I should dream about how her story should have ended.  Getting prizes in school.  Being happy.  Except my mind keeps shying away, afraid that I'll not be able to block out what did happen.  Everyone deserves to be happy... everyone.  I have no words for how deeply wrong this is. 

Omniscient, head-hopping, etc.

What makes omniscient different from head-hopping?  How it affects voice and why head-hopping and omni are not the same.  Well worth reading.

Jami Gold, bless her, has great examples as well.  And she explains how to pass the baton, i.e., indicate to readers that a POV shift has been made when head-hopping.

Bethany (one of Jami's 2011 commenters) says:

I think it’s like this: the writer is sitting inside the house, throwing windows open, and trying to move the furniture around so the readers can see what’s inside, but the readers only have the view from the windows and nothing more. The task of the writer is to make the windows bigger and arrange the furniture in such a way as that the best view is possible so that the readers feel as though they are inside the house, even though they aren’t. No matter how much we like to think that readers are telepathic and could see inside our minds if we could just put the right words on the page, the reality is that no one is telepathic (at least not that I’ve met), and writers need to allow for that.

Omniscient POV types at the Editor's Blog.

This is really long, and really fantastic.  I much recommend it, especially if you wonder what the difference is between these two POVs.

And a short example of how omniscient POV can be made to work using paragraphs as the sections.

Justine Larbalestier says they're just techniques, people!  She's right, they are; but if they're done badly, then that is indeed a sign of bad writing, not a bad technique.

The Golden Age of Detection.

Skating past That Show, I was thinking of some other famous detectives. JDCarr is a forum for mystery fans who love that era.

I found it after I got addicted to Ellery Queen.

It's John Dickson Carr I was thinking of, though. Not because he's the best writer -- no, alas, he's not. For bizarre puzzles that were locked-room mysteries, Carr was the very king.

Some I'd recommend:

The Arabian Nights Murder
The Case of the Constant Suicides
He Who Whispers
Patrick Butler for the Defence

(one of my very favorite Carr characters, Patrick is)

The Problem of the Wire Cage
The Burning Court
The Crooked Hinge
The Hollow Man


Note that I do NOT recommend Carr's historical novels. They make me crazy in a bad way. I struggled through The Devil in Velvet and that's not something I'd wish on anyone. Oy. I know I read some Merrivale, but he's an exceedingly annoying character; as bad as Poirot used to be. I can read Poirot now, he hasn't the power to frustrate or annoy me any more. :D

A few book & 'zine links

Books -- from paper to e-books...

On The Certain Economics Of Relegating Paper Books To The Margins Of The Business

And magazines:

Realms of Fantasy Déjà vu

I wonder if, some day, we will all look back and say, "What! Oh, e-books, remember when print was dying or dead?"

Piracy and e-books...

And as I've lately read The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes... here's a recent article about the Great Detective.

The book that got away...?

Have you heard that there's a new Miles Vorkosigan book out?

And curses, I came back from WFC, and I hadn't got it. No problem, I was trying to not kill myself in carrying things. It's a book, it's new, I can get it... =gnaws fingernails=

So Baen pulled a fast one on me. I had Esther Friesner's Fangs for the Mammaries. I thought I was safe.

Indeed not. Guess what's in the back of that?

Yep. Cryoburn. First chapter.


Lois interviews Miles herself...

Jo Walton has a great essay about Miles. I didn't link to it up top because -- if you haven't read all the series -- this tells you all about the series. For me her essay's great, since I read the Vorkosigan saga [nearly] to death. I've proofread a few of the books too. But for you, go read the series first.

It's fabulous, and I love it. I love Miles and his family.

And then you can join us on the reread. I'm sure Jo will do this again. :D

Reading...

It's summer, so I thought I'd take a break and mention some fiction I've discovered.

Kelly McCullough's SpellCrash. Series. Really fun. Ever wanted your own webgoblin? No? Whyever not?

Alas, the library has this, which is Book 5, and all the other books except Book 4 (MythOS). Mythology operating system, that's it exactly. I'm seeking the rest. :>

But my eye was caught by the purple cover, let's admit.

And I just began WebMage. Very fun.
I can see/feel the resemblance to Zelazny even more. Yum!

Sharon Shinn's "Fallen Angel" (in To Weave a Web of Magic) and Sarah Monette's "A Gift of Wings" (in The Queen in Winter). Wow! I already knew Sarah, and I've read her work. I'd read Sharon's The Shape-Changer's Wife already -- marvelous book! -- so yes, I knew these were well worth it.

I highly recommend skipping the two non-genre authors in both, after reading them in The Queen; one novella is just awful. Possibly what said author thinks what High Fantasy reads like. T'other was... jarring.

July links

Moonie goes into the Blue Yonder with book publicity.

And from EV comes the recent Twitter panel: Do You Believe in Science Fiction?

Shared worlds... ever write one? Want to hear about someone who has? This is a lovely detailed look by Erin M. Evans.

And an essay about reading -- from reading as an addiction to unread books. Definitely enjoyable. I just realized part of why it was so enjoyable; it's by a reader for readers.

Refreshing, especially since the Smithsonian 'zine let me down with lots of "how technology will change everything" today, reading included.

And I can't but think they're a little slow to notice. =sigh= Maybe it's that I have higher standards for the Smithsonian as versus, say, TIME or Newsweek...

'We're All in This Together'

A while back, I was thinking about Diana Wynne Jones, one of my favorite fantasy writers... and this is my most favorite story shape that she uses. I got to read another and it made me very happy.

Archer's Goon is a great example, and the one I think of first. YA can start, of course, with the alienated kid, all alone, trying to get by. And that can work. Sometimes it's just the setup. Sometimes the story morphs as the kid [or kids] find that they aren't really alone.

I'm not averse to the plucky hero[ine] flying solo. Far from it.

But "we" is community. It is friends and family and allies -- sometimes all of those, sometimes not. This is not the same as a single comrade/ally story [which was Andre Norton's particular favorite], although Diana does those too. Not a sidekick but another companion in misfortune.

I could list the other "we" books, but why spoil them for you?

Do realize that sometimes Diana's work will stealthily become a "we" story. If you look carefully at the cover flap, it may warn you. :>

Archer's Goon says straight up that the family is oppressed. It is one of my very favorites. I read it every other year, I think.

I didn't grow up reading DWJ. I wanted to. I found a story called "The Sage of Theare" and it took me many years, probably fifteen or so, to discover that British authors often ended up in the kids' part of libraries... although by then I owned Power of Three and Charmed Life. I have probably read nearly every book she's written.

(If you HAVE read Archer's Goon, Howl's Moving Castle, and Witch Week, here's a fascinating thesis discussion. Except that Cat is named Eric.)

Status report: May

Where have I vanished to?

Well, after Penguicon I fell straight into the next book gig... and my latest obsession. Ahem. Yes, I am now addicted to Ellery Queen mysteries. You are lucky indeed to miss any details of the latest one I've read -- by email or in person.

Yesterday I tried to divert myself with Ellery Queen's Challenge to the Reader. It's an anthology. And the challenge? Ah, well, you are to guess the sleuth's real name.

Although I haven't read many of the Golden Age authors included therein, EQ did not "conceal" some detectives' names well enough. =sigh= Annoying. Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence clued me in on at least one sleuth. :>

Thus far, I think I like Dr. Thorndyke. He is much nicer than Holmes, I must say. Also, Arsène Lupin is delightful -- definitely my kind of rogue.

So now you know. Hide while you still can! You have been warned....

(I really must snag the other three incarnations of Ellery, EQ Version Three novels get a little... depressing.)