January 7, 2015

That’s ‘I am Charlie!’ in French, if readers have been under a rock the last twenty-four hours. Earlier today in Paris, three masked gunmen brandishing AK-47s and shouting “Allahu Akbar” stormed the offices of the satirical* newspaper Charlie Hebdo. They murdered twelve people – the editor, cartoonists, journalists, and police officers – before fleeing in two stolen automobiles. Police…

Read More Je suis Charlie! (harsh language)

I tend to write secondary-world science fiction and fantasy. That means it’s probably a made-up world and culture that may have nothing to do with our Earth. Often, ‘true humans’ like us aren’t even in the cast of characters.

I have not written YA, NA or adult urban fantasy set in contemporary locales (though I love some of the genre), or paranormal romance drawn from the new ‘conventions’ of vampires, angels/demons, Fey Folk, or werewolves. There’s also a whole sub-genre of erotic fiction dealing with shapeshifters that I approach judiciously, because many of those writers deal in the same familiar contemporary vein.

I’ve stopped seeking out beta readers who’ve only read those genres. Because I can explain something only a certain number of times before losing my cool:

paws for blog

 

Over on the Snarkology Blog today, Helena Fairfax talks candidly about her journey as a published author: her first wistful dreams about escaping office work to write, her early contest win, the dreaded ‘it’s good but not right for us’ publisher letter, and her return to writing in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy and…

Read More Paths to Publishing – Helena Fairfax