All Entries Tagged With: "writing"

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 [...]

What can we expect from Tor Books this season?

While at Worldcon in Montreal I had the opportunity to go to the publisher’s presentation for Tor Books with all of their editors (including Patrick Nielsen Hayden, David G. Hartwell, and Tom Doherty) present and I can honestly say that if Tor delivers on the goods this year in terms of their books we can [...]

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 [...]

The Turkey City Lexicon (Part 3, Common Workshop Story Types)

Despite the common belief, editors do a lot more than simply correct spelling and grammar (which is more suited for a copy editor). In truth the editor works in the best interests of a writer to ensure that their work is the best piece of fiction it can be before it is manufactured and placed [...]

The Turkey City Lexicon (Part 2 – Words & Sentences, Cont’d)

Here is the second part of my six-part series entitled the Turkey City Lexicon. Click Here for the first part.

While many aspiring writers have no problem writing short stories, most seem to have a problem with reading short stories, a feature evident upon reading their works. Many aspiring writers assume that writing short stories is [...]

The Turkey City Lexicon (Part 1 – Words and Sentences)

In anticipation for Anticipation (WorldCon ‘09) in Montreal, I decided to take it upon myself to sign up for a writing workshop to get some insightful criticism on my latest novel, “The Seducer’s Handbook” before I go about editing the second draft. The five-person writing workshop set to take place at this year’s Worldcon involves [...]

My Plans For WorldCon

While a formal schedule for Anticipation hasn’t been released as of yet I would like to do a short post on what my plans are for this year’s 67th WorldCon. My plan is essentially three fold (1) promote the blog (2) spread the word about my novel “Second Death” to agents and editors attending and [...]

Sturgeon Award Finalists Announced

While I don’t keep up to date with the latest in short fiction by science fiction/fantasy authors I realize that a lot of my readers do. I also know the painstakingly arduous task that comes with writing short fiction, so when the annual Sturgeon Award Finalists are announced, you can be sure I’ll write a [...]