12 Words to (Almost Always) Cut
Strong stories are not necessarily short. They don’t need to be Hemingway-esque masterpieces of bare prose (even Hemingway didn’t always write that way). And it would be hypocritical to argue for only short sentences or short paragraphs when I have to make a conscious effort to write either. But in a strong story, every word counts. And no word is misplaced or ill-chosen. The vocabulary is vivid and usually varied, plus precise (though alliteration is optional). Words do not...
Read MoreThe Big List of Writing Writing Resources, Part One
You can write your story with nothing but a reasonably flat surface and something that leaves a mark, but it’s a lot easier when you have the right tools. Happily, there are a lot of useful resources out there. Here are some of my favorites. I encountered a few while writing The Starter Guide for Professional Writers (about which I have exciting news: revisions and expansions are underway for a second edition! The past two years have seen some interesting changes in the publishing...
Read More“The Grace of Turning Back” at Beneath Ceaseless Skies
“The Grace of Turning Back,” the final story of the Curse-Strewn World sequence, appears in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #179, which can be read on the BCS website or in the Kindle store. The Tynesi merchants, who traded everything from the silver rice of Timru and perfume leaves from Simrandu to chips of ivory off the Keld’s temples, had a term for a particular sort of improvidence: to throw money, time, or strength into seeing to completion a bargain they had...
Read More“Arnheim’s World” in Analog Magazine
In the May 2015 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, alongside fiction from Rajnar Vajra, But Sparhawk, Robert R. Chase, Aubry Kae Anderson, and J.L. Forrest, my story “Arnheim’s World” explores the economics, ethics, and (anti)sociability of terraforming. Environment, economics, ethics, all stewing in a high-tension dilemma. Exactly the kind of thing you’d expect of me, I hope. I worked on this piece on and off from 2011 onward, intrigued by the idea of a...
Read MoreCommon edits to improve your writing
A lot of editing and rewriting involves relatively minor mechanical and technical changes. A lot. Not that I’m complaining; making these simple changes is a routine part of my work, and if nothing else it keeps me steadily employed. Many of them are changes I make to my own writing on a second draft! However, I thought it’d be helpful to share my “greatest hits”: the advice I give most often, and make use of most often when revising my own work. If you can apply this...
Read More“For Lost Time” up at Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Lose no time in going to check out the latest installment in Across the Curse-Strewn World, a short story sequence following the wizard Aniver and his friend Semira’s quest to rescue his home city, which has somehow become lost in time. Their discoveries in the terrifying library of Arisbat have pointed Aniver and Semira in the right direction, but what a direction it is–the source of the blight that struck Nurathaipolis appears to have come from the Kingdom of the Dead....
Read MoreFree-to-use, high quality photography for ebook covers and more
It’s been a busy start to the new year, which I appreciate but means that blogging has taken a backseat to writing, editing, etc. When I get really busy, I often find that lists are a simple way to keep me in the blogging groove. Writers, especially self-published writers, often need to find excellent images for their covers and websites–but on a budget. Luckily, the Internet (and some stunningly talented artists!) provides. Here are 8 websites offering images that are public...
Read MoreLiving With Imposter Syndrome–Guest Post Live on Fictionvale!
The first mercy of impostor syndrome, in my experience at least, is that it isn’t constant. Instead it attacks at intervals, at moments of either my deepest despair or highest success. Of course success attracts this psychological beastie’s attention: in the grips of impostor syndrome, my jerky brain is happy to dismiss any achievement as a fluke or a fraud. I’ve either tricked people into thinking I can write, or they’ve reviewed my manuscript favorably from pity for someone so pathetically...
Read MoreAll the Grammar Knowledge You Need for NaNo
National Novel Writing Month is not the time to become a grammar expert. The entire idea of this challenge is to stop worrying and write, that is, to churn out 1600+ words of prose each day, prose whose main glory is that it exists, not that it is perfect. Stopping to study capitalizing, punctuation, and sentence structure can only be a distraction, and probably a dispiriting one. That said, NaNoWriMo is also not a great time to be slowed down by worrying whether you’ve punctuated this...
Read MoreNew Release: Different Dragons II
“Of the Generation” has been reprinted in WolfSinger Publication’s Different Dragons II, a collection of cliche-busting dragon stories. To celebrate the new release, WolfSinger is offering a 25% discount through Createspace— follow the link and enter discount code TGERED9J at checkout. For those who prefer ebooks, the Smashwords coupon code ED26N will also give you a 25% discount at checkout. Both codes are valid only until October 15, so move...
Read MoreAbout Therese
Therese Arkenberg's first short story was accepted for publication on January 2, 2008, and her second acceptance came a few hours later. Since then they haven't always been in such a rush, yet her work appears in places like Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Analog, Daily Science Fiction, and the anthology Sword & Sorceress XXIV. Aqua Vitae, her science fiction novella, was released by WolfSinger Publications in December 2011.
She works as a freelance editor and writer in Wisconsin, where she returned after a brief but unforgettable time in Washington, D.C. When she isn't reading, writing, or editing (it's true!) she serves on the board of the Plowshare Center of Waukesha, which works for social, economic, and environmental justice.