To anyone who isn’t a writer, that statement might not make sense. Publishing has changed so much in the last two decades. Once upon a time, the only way to send manuscripts and queries was by hardcopy: formatted a certain way, in a certain family of fonts, and flat in a box or envelope. With…
Read More My first paper submission in years*Also known as ‘That Stark Necklace’**, or ‘I Need To Make Something Red This Week’. **This has absolutely nothing to do with that TSTL family in Game of Thrones. When I was about five, I had a clear red plastic pendant that may have come from a quarter vending machine. The pendant was roughly an…
Read More Dragonfire necklace*Karenna’s an AbsoluteWrite buddy of mine, and a fellow M/M romance writer. One of her most charming series has been about a vegetarian werewolf pushed into heroism far beyond his comfort zone. The last (so far) is in the series was released today: Tempeh For Two. The main buylink at MLR Press is here. Karenna’s website…
Read More Tempeh For Two – Karenna ColcroftThis is a classic piece of advice for new(ish) writers. It’s also one of the most frustrating, for a couple of reasons. Often, we simply don’t know how to do that yet. It takes time and work to gain the skills to ‘show’ instead of merely narrating important details. Even the critical reading skills to…
Read More Show me, don’t tell meWay back in 1996, I’d heard rumors of a great new fantasy author. The news ran sort of like this: Lynn Flewelling – Del Rey – new fantasy world that wasn’t Robert Jordanish – great map – cute male thieves – cute male thieves fighting corrupt wizards and nobles – cute male thieves crushing on…
Read More Shards of Time – new Nightrunners novel!Seriously, Painter has to be one of the greatest digital art tools ever created. For what it does well, it runs circles around similar functions in Photoshop. I’ve been noodling with it since Version 3. But I’m about ready to shit-can Version 12, and I’m not interested at all in Version 13. To the point…
Read More I love Painter but I hate Corel (adult ranting advisory)A little case of mistaken identity has been brought to my attention. I am not Diane Tessman. I am Marian Crane, when I wear my art hat. As a fiber artist, I periodically create sets of award ribbons for the Tempe Festival of the Arts, held twice-yearly in Tempe, AZ. These are generally sixteen category…
Read More Fabric art award ribbonsThis morning I was delighted to listen to a Publishers Weekly webcast about the history, current state, and future prospects of digital publishing as it relates to LGBT and M/M romance and related genres. Brief (personal) definition: M/M is simply a romance or other story with a romance subplot featuring male homosexual relationships. LGBT fiction…
Read More Three digital M/M and LGBT romance publishers sound offI am a total sucker for architecture at its bleeding edge, when it leaps beyond the ticky-tacky houses and strip malls that many architects have to suffer through at some point in their careers. The future of architecture, like everything else, is likely to be something most of us would never guess right now. Check out these…
Read More Sand skyscrapersIt’s been a while. I feel delinquent. This week: another 3K added to Moro’s Shield. After over two years of legal, financial, and health stresses that made it extremely difficult to write this book, I have the plot fully sketched out, I’m happy with it, and I’m well over halfway done with the projected 70K…
Read More Manuscript updates 3-25-2014I’m sorting – when I can – the vast amount of digital, handwritten, sketched, and printed-out information that accrued over my years of worldbuilding the Lonhra Sequence. It isn’t pretty. If I’m to have any hope of self-publishing these stories, I need to do serious housecleaning with all the interlocking and/or contradictory versions I’ve written.…
Read More Housecleaning and dedications…Only I don’t really have an ending deadline date, because I know all about best-laid plans. Singer in Rhunshan will probably, at some point in the next few months, become a self-published fantasy novella. There were valid reasons to delay this step: my fears, my ego, the complexity of doing this right, my worries that…
Read More My self-publishing countdown begins…There are some writer & publisher-related Tumblr blogs I follow and generally adore. But every so often, these sort-of, maybe, might-be tribes throw me for a loop. I have to step back and decide what I believe in. It’s a good exercise. There’s this musing from Liana Brooks, about artists who ‘alter’ existing books: http://lianabrooks.tumblr.com/post/79549092120/do-not-destroy-books-confession-i-hate-book…
Read More Every book is sacred: art or travesty?Years back, I showed in a great little gallery in Sedona, AZ, right on the main tourist drag. Sadly, the gallery owners have long since moved on, but it was a fun gig. A lot of my best sellers were tiny canvas paintings with mini wooden easels, to be had in blank form at several…
Read More Sedona mini-art and internal landscapesCirca 1991, here’s one of my old pen and ink sketches of a character now known as ‘Aksenna’ in my debut novel Moro’s Price. I’d estimate the time period of this image to be around 12,000 years before Moro’s birth. At this stage in her life, Aksenna is not nearly as friendly as she is…
Read More Aksenna in White (slight adult content)As I flirt more and more with the idea of self-publishing at least one novella in my Lonhra Sequence fantasy arc, I’m paying more attention to cover designs and fonts. All stuff I learned to use one way in commercial art, but the applications for print and e-book publication are slightly different. Once I had…
Read More The science of fontsBased off my post yesterday about the decommissioning of the ‘Lifeinpublishing’ tumblr blog, some friends wanted to know how I feel about the recent charges that many new Young Adult dystopia novels and series are ‘derivative’. I have strong feelings about the direction YA has been going, especially in science fiction and fantasy. I have…
Read More YA dystopias, derivative or dynamic?Years ago, after a particularly tense quarter at a company I used to work for, some defiant soul hung this sign up in the break room. It was probably inspired by the bi-weekly forced meetings all departments had to endure before getting their paychecks. Meetings that followed one of two paths from management, depending on…
Read More ‘The beatings will continue until morale improves’Thank you, kind readers, for reading, discussing, and reviewing my debut novel Moro’s Price. Many of you have taken me more or less gently to task for the large cast, sprawling settings, and confusing names and histories mentioned as backdrop for Moro and Val’s story. To maybe help you out a little (or at least…
Read More New page: a Moroverse glossary and appendixWhile browsing a new press release from Fire Mountain Gems, I ran across a project by metal clay* artist Wanaree Tanner. Her work is precise, detailed, exquisitely designed, and mythic in scope. She’s going on my list of inspirations for Sirrithani and Sonta jewelry in my fiction. Also, on my if-I-win-a-lottery-I’m-buying-your-work list. Seriously, this is…
Read More Amazing metal clay artist Wanaree Tanner