Basic, useful writing stuff first. Here is a quick shout-out to Kristen Lamb, who tells it like it is over on her blog…far better than I can. If nothing else, new writers should learn (and tattoo in glowing ink on the inside of their eyelids) that Editing Is Most Of The Damn Job. Some smug…
Read More The Reality of Writing and Diversity, 5-18-2016Follow this link to my interview with the talented and tolerant Theophilia St. Claire, as we talk about the creative process, my experiments with contemporary M/M romance (aka my novella Maestro), and some ‘taboo’ writing subjects. Some purposefully vague news: If you’re interested in my debut novel Moro’s Price (a M/M erotic romance space opera)…
Read More Spotlight on Maestro, news on Moro’s PriceMy stars above, I want to do this. And some of this. I live near older ‘seniors only’ communities, where the first generation to hobby-paint with Bill Alexander and Bob Ross are now dying out. The hobbyists’ yeoman efforts have been making their way into local thrift stores for a good twenty years. Sounds cruel…
Read More Adding Monsters to Thrift Store PaintingsIn honor of The Sovereign and the Thin White Duke*, and as part of the Kids Need to Read charity’s events at the 2016 Phoenix Comicon, I will be donating ‘First Frost’, a black wire and crystal bead mask** inspired by that wonderful ancient fantasy flick ‘Labyrinth’. This is the second wire mask I’ve made…
Read More First Frost Mask, Phoenix Comicon3…2…1..let’s do this. It’s April of 2016, and the Hugo Awards nominations have been made public. If you don’t know what the Hugos are to the science fiction and fantasy genre (or don’t care), you might want to leave now. I’ll forgive you. If you stay, I’ll assume you already know last year’s Hugo history.…
Read More Another year, another Hugo Awards pie fightAs I type this post, I’m looking at a small package filled with about $40 worth of art supplies left over from the scrapbooking binge era circa 2003 to 2006. Which I scored not long ago for $3 at a local thrift store. There are expensive, well-made plastic circle templates spun on tiny ball-bearings. Pewter…
Read More Useful Objects: craft, thrift, and mortalityA little compare and contrast game for this election season. (For those of you not American or not paying attention, yes, we’re in the middle of an incredibly nasty presidential election.) My examples have nothing – and everything – to do with the current candidates. Canada has a new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who stunned…
Read More Quantum Computing and lies from the pit of hellA PSA for writers in multiple genres with query-ready manuscripts (finished & polished): if you and/or your characters meet certain qualifications, you can participate in tomorrow’s #DVpit contest on Twitter. It’s being sponsored by agent Beth Phelan, and looks to include a lot of well-known literary agents and editors (usual caveats apply). This is a…
Read More Diverse Voices pitch contest 4-19-2016Rami Ismail has a great running commentary on a complaint that game design workers are ‘wage-slave’ whiners if they want to focus on a sane work/life balance. Instead of, you know, pouring 80 to 100 hours a week into a company where the funding, scheduling, and management issues might be so inefficient that the project…
Read More Rami Ismail talks about work-life balanceThere are three large jewelry supply companies I have been buying from since 1979, 1983, and 1989, respectively. 1979 and 1989 were once known for high-quality merchandise and great customer service (at least in my dealings with them.) When I first found them, their catalogs, and their stores, I had never seen that many beads…
Read More Jewelry supply companies and co-op galleriesI hope so. Judge for yourself, and maybe come back here? What do you think, readers? Does it come too late to rescue the Romance Writers of America, as a vital professional organization? I hope not. I am not a member of the RWA. I’ve attended a few meetings, I have a fair number of friends…
Read More An apology from the RWA?For the 14 people who regularly read this thing, do not panic. The Blue Night blog will be undergoing some cosmetic changes over the next week. I’ve set it up with the WordPress 2016 theme for the moment, as that is supposedly very stable and clean. Plus, no light text on dark backgrounds, for those…
Read More Do not adjust your screenHell, to writers in general. Stop trolling each other, please. Yes, fanfiction is a good way to hone writing skills and interact with other fans in a generally supportive environment. Yes, given the hobbyist nature of the fanfiction genre, I would never expect or offer a rigorous critique…unless the author requested it with full awareness…
Read More A gentle note to fanfic writersIn writing, art…really, in life, rejection happens. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, our efforts don’t match with what the other side needs or wants. How we address those rejections can have a vast impact on our future efforts, our risk-taking, and well-earned self esteem. Here are some tips I’ve learned in some 30-odd…
Read More Rejections happen. What do you do next?I’ve been away from the news, so I didn’t catch what was happening in Belgium until a couple of hours ago. My hopes and best wishes go out to Belgium and the entire EU right now. Serious political upheavals are testing that already uneasy alliance. The ‘Islamic State’ is having a temper tantrum again, and…
Read More cowards with bombsFor many years I was a registered Republican. My parents had been, that’s how I started my voting record. It didn’t take long for me to realize that Ronald Reagan was probably a sham worse than Nixon. But I stayed Republican, thinking I could work within the party…or at least help sabotage it from within.…
Read More Politics as usualIn 199X, I sent a story into Marion Zimmer Bradley’s then-prestigious fantasy magazine. I eventually got back a form rejection notice with a handwritten note from the Great One herself, explaining, “Werewolves are done, over. No werewolf fics, please. Same goes for vampires.” I take a little comfort that the Paranormal Romance explosion was a…
Read More The shapeshifter dilemmaSo, this is going to be really embarrassing for a good friend from long ago. Too bad. The summary: SleepsWithCoyotes is porting her fanfiction over to Archive of Our Own. My first reaction: fall over, giggling things like YAY! and OMG! My second reaction: adding her to the top of my Fanfiction Recommendations list. The…
Read More I cannot contain my joySo, right then, the news: Samhain is shutting down, after realizing that their sales were foundering over the last two years and they couldn’t keep up with the changing book industry. Samhain was one of the strongest (until now) of the digital erotic romance pubs, known for a great catalog of LGBTQ titles as well…
Read More Samhain, KDSpy, and Ebb tides in publishing…but will enough people listen? I found out about Mark Oshiro while he was posting about reading ‘Twilight’ a few years ago. His blog has been a semi-regular stop for me ever since. So I had some name recognition in place, when a friend emailed me and said, “You know how you said you were…
Read More Mark Oshiro speaks out…