2009 August at SF Novelists

Archive for August, 2009

glenda larke August 31st 2009

What makes a successful writer?

Let’s make it specific, and talk about writers of long fiction – novelists. Is it when a book (probably not your first!) is accepted for publication? When you get your first cheque? Is it when you hold that first published work in your hand? Or when you see it in the local bookshop? Perhaps it’s [...]

Stephanie Burgis August 26th 2009

Finding my way in

How do you come up with a whole novel? Do you start with setting, with story, or with something totally different? For me, it starts with voice. Three years ago, I was chopping onions in my kitchen when I suddenly heard the first two lines of my novel spoken clearly in my head: I was [...]

Jim C. Hines August 24th 2009

That New Manuscript Smell

On August 15, I turned in the third book in my current series. Last week, I started writing book four. I love this part. Right now, the story is nothing but potential. This could be the best thing I’ve ever written. Heck, it could be the best story anyone has ever written. (It could also [...]

David B. Coe August 21st 2009

Learning to Teach Writing

Since the beginning of this year, I have served as an outside mentor to a graduate student who is working on his master’s degree in creative writing. (I am not employed by the university he attends, but I have been hired to serve in this specific role for this student.) And for the past month [...]

Kate Elliott August 18th 2009

Field of Vision

One piece of advice I would always give to aspiring writers and newly published/hoping to expand their footprint writers in the sff field goes like this: Be aware of what is going on in the genre. I don’t attend many conventions these days. I’m a little too far off the beaten track (off any track, [...]

Diana Pharaoh Francis August 17th 2009

Serializing a Novel

Of late, Catherynne Valente and Tim Pratt have been serializing novels online for their readers. You should go read them, because they are good, but that isn’t what I want to talk about. Aside from being a brilliant fantasy novelist, (she said most modestly and with a slight flush of humbleness), I also have a [...]

Marie Brennan August 16th 2009

More lasting than bronze

My husband and I recently watched the 1957 movie 12 Angry Men, which I had never seen before. I’m not generally a fan of old movies; my cinematic tastes run to fantasy and science fiction (surprise!), or action, or various other things not as commonly filmed in the days of black and white. Also — [...]

S.C. Butler August 15th 2009

Write Another Book

This is the conclusion more and more of the writers I know seem to be arriving at when we talk about marketing these days. There are still some proponents of blogging, and of traveling around the country as a multimedia event with two folksingers and a chicken-head-eating-geek, and of doing drive-by blitzes of every bookstore [...]

Kelly McCullough August 11th 2009

A Part, Yet Apart

So, I’ve been thinking about the science fiction convention experience and wondering if I’m alone in my relationship with cons or whether it’s something more general to writers attempting to make their way up the pro ladder. Because, as a professional genre writer I find that I feel both a part of the convention community [...]

Alma Alexander August 5th 2009

Goin’ Fishin’…

Due to lots of Circumstances (how, how HOW does one get water in one’s basement on the hottest day of the year? Honestly, I am a remarkable person to whom remarkable things apparently happen – one of the contractors we spoke to about this said, carefully, “You have a very… unusual… problem…” – count the [...]

Author Information

glenda larke

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Stephanie Burgis

Stephanie Burgis is an American writer who lives in Yorkshire, England, with her husband, fellow writer Patrick Samphire, their son "Mr Darcy", and their crazy-sweet border collie mix, Maya. Her Regency fantasy trilogy for kids, The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson, will be published by Atheneum Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, in 2010, 2011, and 2012, beginning with Book One: A Most Improper Magick. She has also published short stories in a variety of magazines, anthologies, and podcasts, including Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Escape Pod. You can find out more, or read/listen to her published stories online, at her website. Visit site.

Jim C. Hines

Jim C. Hines' latest book is THE SNOW QUEEN'S SHADOW, the fourth of his fantasy adventures that retell the old fairy tales with a Charlie's Angels twist. He's also the author of the humorous GOBLIN QUEST trilogy. Jim's short fiction has appeared in more than 40 magazines and anthologies, including Realms of Fantasy, Turn the Other Chick, and Sword & Sorceress XXI. Jim lives in Michigan with his wife and two children. He's currently hard at work on LIBRIOMANCER, the first book in a new fantasy series. Visit site.

David B. Coe

David B. Coe is the author of eleven fantasy novels, including the books of the LonTobyn Chronicle, Winds of the Forelands, and Blood of the Southlands. He has also written the novelization for the Ridley Scott production of ROBIN HOOD, starring Russell Crowe, that is due out in May 2010. In 1999 he received the Crawford Fantasy Award, given annually by the IAFA to the best new author in fantasy. He has a Ph.D. in United States environmental history and lives on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee with his wife and daughters. Visit site.

Kate Elliott

Kate Elliott is the author of multiple fantasy and science fiction novels, including the Crown of Stars series and the Novels of the Jaran. She's currently working on Crossroads; the first novel, Spirit Gate, is already out, and Shadow Gate will be published in Spring 2008. Visit site.

Diana Pharaoh Francis

Diana Pharaoh Francis has written the fantasy novel trilogy that includes Path of Fate, Path of Honor and Path of Blood. Path of Fate was nominated for the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award. Recently released was The Turning Tide, third in her Crosspointe Chronicles series (look also for The Cipher and The Black Ship). In October 2009, look for Bitter Night, a contemporary fantasy. Diana teaches in the English Department at the University of Montana Western, and is an avid lover of all things chocolate. Visit site.

Marie Brennan

Marie Brennan is the author of more than thirty short stories and the Onyx Court series of historical fantasy novels, concluding in the upcoming With Fate Conspire (due out September 2011). Visit site.

S.C. Butler

Butler is the author of The Stoneways Trilogy from Tor Books: Reiffen's Choice, Queen Ferris, and The Magician's Daughter. Find out what Reiffen does with magic, and what magic does with him... Visit site.

Kelly McCullough

Kelly McCullough is a fantasy and science fiction author. He lives in Wisconsin with his physics professor wife and a small herd of cats. His novels include the WebMage and Fallen Blade series—Penguin/ACE. His short fiction has appeared in numerous venues including Writers of the Future and Weird Tales. He also dabbles in science fiction as science education with The Chronicles of the Wandering Star—part of an NSF-funded science curriculum—and the science comic Hanny & the Mystery of the Voorwerp, which he co-authored and co-edited—funding provided by NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope. Visit site.

Alma Alexander

Alma Alexander is a Pacific Northwest novelist whose new YA trilogy, "Worldweavers", debuted with "Gift of the Unmage" in March 2007 ("Spellspam" follows in 2008, and "Cybermage" in 2009). Her other books include the internationally acclaimed "The Secrets of Jin Shei". Visit site.