Category Archives: Process

Favorite Li(n)es

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We all have them. Some of them we didn’t even write. Since my brain is otherwise locked up at the moment, I’m putting a couple of my favorites up here instead of, you know, writing something. Both of today’s lines come from one of my all-time favorite writers, Parke Godwin. The first one needs a little context, so know that it was spoken by Guenivere in Beloved Exile after learning of the death of a romantic rival.

“Later I heard she died of the plague. God is good. Sometimes he’s an absolute dear.”

The second is from “Influencing the Hell out of Time and Theresa Golowitz” and needs no context at all.

“Dead one day, and already I need a lawyer.”

While I realize that any single line or small phrase separated from its context is never going to have the same impact, these are two that, anytime I think of them, always make me smile.

And I think I will throw in one more from another of my most favorite writers. This is from Peter Beagle’s The Last Unicorn.

“No cat out of its first fur can ever be fooled by appearances. Unlike human beings, who seem to enjoy it.”

Anyone else have a favorite line? Anyone who doesn’t? (I would need that latter explained to me).

On Being Perverse

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In the proper usage of the word, not its current defilement. I simply mean that, upon receiving advice from First Reader that a certain character wasn’t important to the story I’d just written and should be cut out, I not only didn’t cut him out, I went the other way and added an entire extra scene starring you know who.

It’s not that I wasn’t listening to First Reader’s reaction. On the contrary, her reaction was the reason I did exactly the opposite of what she suggested. Continue reading →

Lord Grant Me Patience and I Mean Right Now! Wait…On Second Thought, Nevermind

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I sold another story recently and I’ll give details when something’s official (as in the contract is signed). One side-effect of the sale, oddly enough, was to get me thinking about rejections.

Specifically, how bloody long they often take. The truism is that it “always takes an editor longer to say yes than to say no,” but I’m here to tell you that’s a load of baloney. Continue reading →

Just Open the Box, Dammit

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I am Schrodinger’s Cat. And I’m getting a little sick of it, frankly. Is it too much to ask for the wave function to collapse already? Yeah, I know. At the end of it all I might be dead. I might not. But at least the whole mess will be #$@# settled.

Fine, it’s a metaphor. Or rather, a metaphorical description of an actual situation. (And for anyone who hasn’t a clue what I’m talking about, Google “Schrodinger’s Cat,” and you’ll find more than you ever wanted to know). The point is that I’m trying to be two things at once, and they are mutually exclusive things, so basically I’m at war with myself on a continual basis, and how’s that working out? Not so well. I know I’m not alone in this, in fact I strongly suspect that many of you out there are have the same problem, and this is it in the proverbial nutshell—I want my work to be well known and widely read. I personally do not want to be well known. But achieving one almost always negates the other, unless you’re writing under a pseudonym, and even that’s not a gurantee.

From a practical standpoint, writing is the perfect avocation for someone who doesn’t especially want to be noticed. Continue reading →

Talking to Myself and Feeling Old

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Sometime back in the mid-nineties, just a year or two after I’d started publishing regularly, I was asked to write a profile. I don’t remember by whom. I don’t even remember what for. But I stumbled upon it a while back. Most of it is out of date, other parts are simply overblown and embarrassing, and show just how full of myself I was at the time(Which makes me wonder how much has really changed). But as a document of where I was and what was passing for reflection in my feeble excuse for a brain at the time, I found it interesting. I can’t see how anyone else would but, hey, tough noogies. This is my blog and I feel like sharing. Or in the words of past philosophers– “I’ve suffered for my art. Now it’s your turn.” Continue reading →