There’s no “rule” for book titles. Not a single one. They aren’t copyrighted, so you can call your book whatever you want. Call it WAR AND PEACE or WIZARDS OF EARTHSEA or THE CLOUD ATLAS or whatever. You can do what you like. Got that out of your system? Now let’s get to work. Titles are […]
How Book Titles Turn Browsers into Readers Read More »
After writing 9,000 words on Saturday and spending Sunday doing, well, everything else I don’t have time for during the week, I sat down Sunday night for some trashy TV. I was out of Pawn Stars and Swamp People and Storage Wars, so I opted for season 6 of America’s Next Top Model, which is
Grist for the Mill: What America’s Next Top Model Can Teach You About Publishing Read More »
In May of 1921, a group of vigilantes burned down a wealthy community in Tulsa, Oklahoma over the course of about 16 hours. More than 800 people were admitted to local hospitals and police arrested and detained more than 6,000 people. The riots left 10,000 homeless and destroyed 35 city blocks. Up to 300 people
It’s Always Been Awful Under the Boot: On the Fatigue of Everyday Horror Read More »
I’ve been thinking a bit about the “generational divide” among feminists in SFF in particular, though I have a post I want to write about Tumblr feminism as well that will go into this more in-depth. There’s the camp that says we’re all overreacting, that things aren’t so bad, and were never bad at all,
All Together Now: Building a More Pragmatic SFF Conversation Read More »
I’ve talked before about how I don’t write every day. This idea blows the minds of some folks who follow me on Twitter during the long marches right up before deadline, when I’m updating them with insane word counts while weeping into my whisky and mourning extravagant character deaths. But the reason I binge write
Life on 10,000 Words a Day: How I’m Hacking My Writing Process Read More »
In the spirit of honesty and transparency that’s often sorely lacking in the literary world, here’s what I’ve been paid for my novels for the last 7 years. Many of you don’t realize I’ve had writing contracts for 7 years! That’s because the first contract I ever signed was canceled. They paid it out anyway.
What I Get Paid For My Novels: Or, Why I’m Not Quitting My Day Job Read More »
It’s 2015 folks, and hot damn, does time fly. One of the fabulous things about being an author is that I get to see some books early, and tell you about THE BEST ONES. Plenty of studies tell me not to talk about these books before you can click BUY NOW HOLD IN MY HOT
Books You Should Be Pre-Ordering Read More »
I completed all the chapters in my latest novel, EMPIRE ASCENDANT, last night. It’s the fourteenth book I’ve written, but just the fifth that will be published. There’s a reason I had to write so many trunked novels that will never see the light of day before I wrote ones that did: I don’t have
So You Think You Finished a Novel… Read More »
I’ve been blessed with some pretty great bosses in my time, folks who recognized that having somebody smart on the team who got things done made them look good, and meant they did less work because, you know, I was doing it. But, being a woman in the workplace, it was inevitable that some boss,
On Being Too Smart and Assertive in the Workplace Read More »
In the film Gattaca, a young man born with what its dystopian society considered “undesirable” genetic disadvantages manages to fleece the system and rise up through the ranks of its elite astronaut corps. When confronted by his brother about how he’d done it, the young man likens it to the swimming races they had as
I Never Saved Anything for the Swim Back Read More »