Archive for the 'reading' Category

Traduttore, Traditore: translations, languages and cultures

As someone who writes in one language (English), lives in another (French) on a day-to-day basis, and has some knowledge of a few others (fairly good Spanish, and notions of Vietnamese and Mandarin), I’m always interested in the matter of translating from one language to another. Translation can seem a bit of a dry exercise [...]

The Fundamentals

I’m a New York Mets fan.  Yes, I know.  Thank you.  Your expressions of sympathy are much appreciated.  But beyond seeking your pity, I bring this up for a reason.  Anyone who has watched the Mets play will tell you that they are terrible at the fundamentals.  When they’re hitting they swing at bad pitches, [...]

Are you enjoying the journey?

  Depending on what writing bible you follow, there are only 3 real plots in the universe – or 12, or 37, or ONE. It doesn’t matter what the number is,  so long as you realize that the basic idea is distilling EVERY book into its constituent parts   If you do that to a [...]

Did You Ever Have One of Those Ideas?

A novel idea attacked me yesterday and ate my brain. It’s an idea that I love, and yet it’s insane. Really. It’s one of those things where disparate things crash together and seem like they shouldn’t exist in the same universe, much less the same world, city or neighborhood. Think about something like Lost meets [...]

A Literary Thanksgiving

Today it’s Thanksgiving in America, one of my favorite holidays. I’ve talked on my own blog about some of the things I’m grateful for in my personal life, but for this entry, I wanted to talk about something a little different: the writers I’m thankful for, as a writer. You know what I mean: the [...]

Our Books, Warts and All

As I have mentioned in a previous SFNovelists post, I am working this year with a Master’s student in creative writing. Last term we worked on writing and editing; this term I’m having him read several books that I consider classics of fantasy and science fiction. (No, I’m not going to give you titles, and [...]

Form of…mass market

I’ve reached a publishing milestone today–well, a milestone for me.  After years of hoping and wishing, I finally have a novel published in mass market format (that would be a reissue of the first in my WVMP Radio series, Wicked Game). I realize that many authors aspire to trade paperback or even hardcover.  They want [...]

For Whom Do We Write?

I finished a novel a couple of weeks ago.  It’s the first book in a new series that I’ve yet to sell to a publisher.  I love this book.  I think it may be the best thing I’ve ever written, and I have ideas for subsequent books in the series — all of them stand-alone [...]

Who is that character based on, really?

Years ago after the publication of my second novel (the first volume of the Highroad trilogy, titled A Passage of Stars and written under the byline Alis A Rasmussen), a friend said to me, in a smirkingly knowing way, “You based the main character on yourself, didn’t you?” Well, no, I hadn’t.  Yes, my heroine [...]

Dusting off the files

The only thing weirder than seeing your (first) novel out there is seeing a different version of it.  It’s so strange it’s almost like getting a second novel published!   Though in some ways, the recently-released mass-market version of Mirrored Heavens is a different novel, because (unlike the trade paperback), the mass market contains a [...]

Author Information

Aliette de Bodard

Aliette de Bodard is the author of the upcoming Aztec fantasy Servant of the Underworld, published by Angry Robot. Her short fiction garnered her a nomination for the Campbell Award. She lives in Paris, France. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jeri Smith-Ready

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.

David J. Williams

Descended from Australian convicts, David J. Williams nonetheless managed to be born in Hertfordshire, England, and subsequently moved to Washington D.C. just in time for Nixon’s impeachment. Graduating from Yale with a degree in history some time later, he narrowly escaped the life of a graduate student and ended up doing time in Corporate America, which drove him so crazy he started moonlighting on video games and (as he got even crazier) novels. The Autumn Rain trilogy sold to Bantam in the summer of 2007; the release of THE MACHINERY OF LIGHT completes the series. Visit site.

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