A Christie quote and some thoughts.

"Politicians don't have time to look at the world they're living in.  They see the country they're living in and they see it as one vast electoral platform.  That's quite enough to put on their plates for the time being.  They do things that they honestly believe will make things better, and then they're surprised when they don't make things better because they're not the things that people want to have.  And one can't help coming to the conclusion that politicians have a feeling that they have a kind of divine right to tell lies in a good cause."

From Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie.

Myself, I can't help wondering if Agatha herself thought this.  I wish I could ask her.  My favorite bit has the white background, the penultimate line.

It's a very talky book.  Afraid that I sat it down several times to get a breath from a certain level of overkill -- alas, not what you'd think in one of her mysteries!

Completely not related to that, I figured out some things in it and that made me happy.  I used to think she was just too good at puzzles.  She is; but I always read too fast because I want to know far more than I want to figure out whodunnit.

Ellery Queen taught me that if I just stop a bit and think, instead of rushing along, that I can figure things out.

So I've been able to tag the murderer and/or perp in a few Christies lately, and that's pleased me.  8)

Next stage on NSB and Sky/Start.

This all comes after the recent news for Night Shade Books and their authors.  There's lots of pertinent info for any writer, from the terms as discussed by agent Joshua Bilmes to the contract gone over by Michael Stackpole.

A Better Deal for Night Shade Books' Authors.

The SFWA also weighs in with a brief statement.

Tobias Buckell's roundup post has been added to, considerably.  If you haven't read it, I really recommend you do so.  If you read nothing else, read his post, because it gets the highlights of a LOT of this discussion.

He added author Kameron Hurley's post Deal/No Deal and posts [such as the initial post, The Embarrassment of the Night Shade/Skyhorse deal] by agent Andrew Zack.

I highly recommend Kameron's and Andrew's posts.  He's done several.


A Tweet from Electric Velocipede too.

2013: Night Shade Books.

What went wrong? at Night Shade Books.

A round-up post by Tobias Buckell with LOTS of fine links, including a few I've got here.  Really well worth it, because Toby is amazing and he always explains things very well.

Such as The Night Shade Writers of America by Joshua Bilmes

Details of the Skyhorse offer from Michael Stackpole.

Looking over at Absolute Write, I found more details there on Skyhorse, which don't sound good -- via the AW user Weirdmage.  Skyhorse is in the Bewares section, which is linked in Weirdmage's post, along with directions as to where the 2013 discussion starts.


I am not one of their authors.

FYI:  NSB's Eclipse Online is now closed.

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.

Plot devices (and coupons).

There was a discussion about plot devices over at Daily Kos.  It's also stocked with many many handy links for writers and readers alike.

And if you haven't heard of plot devices, or plot coupons, then you need to read The Well-Tempered Plot Device.  Which is brilliant, clever, useful, and hilarious.  I shall never have any other nickname for LOTR than Nick's...

I think every sf/f reader should know about plot coupons.  And hey, the laughs help too. :D

Recent links: writing/research.

From Daily Writing Tips, prone versus supine.

The kind of water in tropical rivers.  Really cool.  I didn't know "white-water" applied in this manner!

Death by bleeding delayed, per the author of Murder and Mayhem... which is written by a doctor.  Looks like a really good book about medical and forensic questions.  I was quite taken by the answer.

An analysis of Jurassic Park, mainly the dinosaurs.

Types of collisions.  Isn't it cool when you realize you know something, but you just didn't know the terms?

Being a Preposition.  I plan to go back and read all of this later; fairly certain that I saw this on Twitter.

And now I can close some of my legions of screens! 8D

Common sense...

"Perhaps the old saying is true and it is not possible to love and be wise. When you are as devoted to anyone... I expect you cease to be sane about the matter."

"Sane," said Searle sharply.  

"Yes; things lose their proper proportions.  Which, I take it, is a loss of sanity."