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Alma Alexander February 5th 2012

Do you dream?…

I wake up in the mornings with my head filled with STUFF. Sometimes it’s an entire story, fully fleshed out and ready to roll (I’ve sold at least one such story, and it’s been published, and people out there have no real idea they’re reading the transcript of what my brain presented me with while [...]

James Alan Gardner January 23rd 2012

The Skill List Project: Writing Descriptive Passages

This is another post in The Skill List Project: an attempt to list all the skills involved in writing and selling fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy. As promised last time, we’re going to look at writing description, one of the most important skills in prose fiction. When you think about it, prose fiction primarily [...]

Marie Brennan January 16th 2012

Competence is hot

By now everybody and their brother has probably seen the post by (SF Novelists’ own) Jim Hines, wherein he attempts to pose like the women on the covers of some fantasy novels. The results are suitably absurd — not because there’s anything wrong with Jim, but because there’s something wrong with the covers. He caused [...]

S.C. Butler January 15th 2012

What’s Your Favorite Anecdote About Learning How to Write?

 Mine is easy.  It was in a college writing class many, many years ago.  Not an MFA writing class, but the kind of writing class that pre-meds, business, and chemistry majors used to take, because deep in their hearts they didn’ want to be doctors, entrepreneurs, or scientists.  They wanted to be writers.  Creative writing [...]

Alma Alexander January 5th 2012

Promotion, self-promotion, and all that jazz

See, here’s the thing – nobody likes a shill for their own stuff. For very excellent reasons. If a person – an artist – a writer – doesn’t seem to be capable of uttering six straight words without beginning the next sentence with “In MY book…” – well – there is only so much you [...]

S.C. Butler December 15th 2011

Secrets of Writing – Pacing

Pacing is one of the most important techniques in a writer’s tool chest, especially if you write narrative.  It is also one of tools least understood by newbies – at least that was my experience when I was an active member of the Online Writers Workshop. What is pacing? you ask.  Pacing is the art [...]

Alma Alexander December 5th 2011

Fairy Tale Business

It’s instructive, right now, to compare the methods of building on fairy tale tropes as practised by the TV shows “Once Upon a TIme” and “Grimm”. Let me just say at the outset that I started watching both, from the pilot on up. I lasted two episoes with “Once Upon A Time.” I am STILL [...]

Marie Brennan November 16th 2011

Research for writers, #4: Get Help

Sometimes the thing you want to research is either so unfamiliar to you or so obscure that you don’t even know where to start. The strategies for these two scenarios are not quite the same, because the root problem is not the same. In the former case, you may be facing an abundance of information, [...]

Mindy Klasky November 1st 2011

Electronic Means Never Needing to Say “I’m Sorry.”

I am not perfect. Shocking admission, I know. But I have to admit – I *was* shocked when I first published SORCERY AND THE SINGLE GIRL, the second volume in my Jane Madison series.  I had carefully done a great deal of research about various aspects of witchcraft — runes and herbs and crystals… One [...]

Jim C. Hines October 24th 2011

The Secrets of Good Blogging

Last week, I wrote a post asking whether writers should blog, and why. I wanted to write a follow-up for the hypothetical writer whose thought things over and decided to go for it. Having made that choice, what next? Here’s the thing. Blogging is basically self-publishing, with all of the advantages and disadvantages that come with it. [...]

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Author Information

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.

James Alan Gardner

James Alan Gardner got his M.Math from the University of Waterloo with a thesis on black holes...and then he immediately started writing science fiction instead. He's been a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards, and has won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award as well as the Aurora award (twice). He's published seven novels (beginning with "Expendable"), plus a short story collection and (for street cred) a Lara Croft book. He cares deeply about words and sentences, and is working his way up to paragraphs. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mindy Klasky

Mindy Klasky is the author of eleven novels, including WHEN GOOD WISHES GO BAD and HOW NOT TO MAKE A WISH in the As You Wish Series. She also wrote GIRL'S GUIDE TO WITCHCRAFT, SORCERY AND THE SINGLE GIRL, and MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL, about a librarian who finds out she's a witch. Mindy also wrote the award-winning, best-selling Glasswrights series and the stand-alone fantasy novel, SEASON OF SACRIFICE. 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.

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