All Entries in the "A Writer's Life" Category

What Can We Expect from Pyr Books in the Future?

While at this year’s WorldCon I had the fortunate pleasure of meeting Lou Anders, head editor of mid-sized book publisher of Pyr Books. In recent years, Pyr (an imprint of Prometheus Books) has stood out in science fiction publishing as a publisher with a fantastic list of authors, a standard for great editorial quality, and [...]

Chip Kidd on Book Design

If you’re in publishing or an avid reader then it’s likely you’ve come across the name Chip Kidd one way or another. Kidd is currently an associate art director for Knopf and has been for the past 22 years. His book covers have made him a celebrity among artists and graphic designers alike and Publisher [...]

Blockbuster or Lackluster? September DVD/Blu-ray Releases

While August was a somewhat lackluster month for science fiction and fantasy DVD/Blu-ray releases it seems that with kids going back to school as we roll into the new fall television season, September seems to more than make up for the difference. Check out below for what we can expect from DVD/Blu-ray releases in September

September [...]

Why Tweet Adder Can Be the Best thing for Your Blog

Normally most of my blog posts centre around the subject of science fiction, fantasy or horror, but every so often I’ll do a post that is completely off the mark, and this is one of those posts. As a person with a full-time job who has very limited time to run a blog any piece [...]

WorldCon 2011 (most likely) to be Held in Reno

It’s very likely that the 2011 WorldCon will be held in Reno, Nevada two years from now after the second most promising contender (Seattle, Washington) apparently withdrew its bid citing difficulties in securing preferred venues for the event.

“We had initial options on facilities, but when it came time to reduce them to formal writing, we [...]

The Turkey City Lexicon (Part 6 – Character and Viewpoint)

Alas we come to the final section of the Turkey City Lexicon, character, viewpoint and other miscellaneous things. Sufficed to say if these are your only problems with the story after managing to accomplish every else in the other five parts of the turkey city lexicon then fixing these mistakes should be a cakewalk. On [...]

The Turkey City Lexicon (Part 5 – Background)

One of the more difficult aspects of short story writing is getting across to the reader a clear sense of backstory to a character or place without it being one gigantic infodump. Setting a story in a particular context (whether it be that of a place or that of a character) can also be seen [...]

Jim Baen’s Universe to be Closing in 2010

Apparently this has been on the wire for over two months but for those aspiring writers out there hoping to get their short stories published some day, they should note that Jim Baen’s Universe will be closing with its last issue to be published in April 2010. The bimonthly online science fiction and fantasy magazine [...]

The Turkey City Lexicon (Part 4 – Plots)

Plots are the cousins of story ideas. Well, not really, but in terms of crafting a good short story (or novel) they are important. Just as any story need a plot that is original and not cliched, plots need to be well formulated, concise, and, most importantly, they need to make sense. So here is [...]

What Does WorldCon means to me?

I write this from my room in the Delta Hotel just a few blocks from the Palais de Congres where the 2009 WorldCon (better known as AnticipationSF) is currently being held. Now in the real world I’m an assistant editor for two automotive trade magazines in Toronto, so when I discovered that the Worldcon would [...]