You might be a writer if your to do-list goes:-talk to X about aprt-Pay credit card balance (!!!)–Aurmid has never had a family or given her daughters one–there is only the Empire. Revisions of One Hundred Days are going very well after this most recent Staycation, and as I’m thinking more about the story I…
Blogging from the Writer’s Staycation
After my work with Zahara proved so rewarding last semester, I’ve continued as her assistant over this summer. This means I’ve been able to attend not only one but two Staycations–and this time as an apprentice Fellow, which means this Friday I’ll be an opening and lunchtime speaker. It also means that, with four weekdays…
What does it say about me…
…that the instant Rusty the Red Panda disappeared from the National Zoo, my sister and I receive multiple emails to the effect of “Did you really!?” Just because we were in Washington, D.C. at the time. And an admitted affection for red pandas. Well, did we really?
List: Everything That Can Go Wrong (a Mix-n-Match Adventure)
Storytelling is problem solving–to have a plot, you need a problem for your characters to confront. Then the plot needs a reason behind it, and you have to make clear what’s at stake if the problem isn’t solved, while having some idea how your characters are going to solve it. Over the weekend I started…
“An Honorable Aunt” at Silver Blade
Silver Blade Issue #18 is live, and includes my fantasy story “An Honorable Aunt”. This was one of those stories it was fun to write simply because I was getting inside the heads of people who view the world so differently from me, that it was a stretch of intellectual–and perhaps empathetic–muscle to show their…
Print Books that are *Good* for the Planet
Being surrounded by the printed word (and intending to remain so my entire life–much as I enjoy ebooks, I like to keep paper copies for backup), I remain acutely conscious that it’s called “dead tree”s for a reason. Also, ever since my trip to Ghana I’ve had a horror of plastic. It’s bad enough seeing…
Dancing to Replace PowerPoint: A Modest Proposal
I confess it, I’m a TED Talk fan–the videos are short enough to appeal to my attention span, interesting enough to make me feel smart of watching them, and free–and this is now one of my favorites. If you also enjoy modest proposals, the Onion Talks are excellent, too.
Blogging from the Home Office
It’s very nice to have a room of one’s own, even if that room is really just 185 square feet serving as bedroom, office, and kitchen all at once. I’m not sure how productive I’ve been, but I feel productive because I’m sitting down at the computer at least once an hour to type, revise,…
WisCon 37–A Partial Review
I was certain I wouldn’t make it to WisCon this year, coming as it did right before my moving trip to Washington, D.C. But with some last-minute crunch and a willingness to run around disoriented (I’ve learned these will get you far in life, or at least lead me very far afield), I made it for…
Home to Wisconsin and Back to DC
I write this from my new laptop, a generous graduation present from my family. Yes, I’ve graduated, and will spen the rest of my life confusing people by telling them I have a (single, not triple) Batchelorate of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Or at least until I get a Master’s. But that’s…