Category Archives: Writing

Public Service Announcement

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Well, ok. I consider it a PSA. You might not, but it’s my blog, so there. To cut to the chase, PS Publishing is having a sale. They’re clearing out the almost-but-not-quite-gone items in stock, and that includes a few (a very few) of the regular signed hardcover of Hereafter, and After, including the lovely introduction by Andy Duncan. Once these are gone, that’s it. They’re selling them for 6.99L, which is around $11.18 USD. They originally sold for $40, so if someone would prefer the hc to the ebook edition, now is pretty much your last and best chance, because I can guarantee that the dealers won’t let it go for that.

Ok, besides me, they also have books by Jeff Ford, Chris Roberson, Tim Lebbon, and Joe Hill, among others on the sale page. And I’ll tell you something else–I looked at the sale page yesterday, and I looked at the sale page today. Guess what? It was a LOT shorter. They’re going fast.

Just sayin’.

We Gotta Think About This

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In the November Locus magazine, Corey Doctorow has an article entitled “It’s Time to Stop Talking About Copyright.” Now, I admit up front that I’m a bit old school and protective when it comes to copyright, and Corey Doctorow is about three jumps ahead of the cutting edge on the subject. Which is to say that I always find whatever he has to say on the topic of Intellectual Property (IP) thought-provoking and well worth reading, even when I don’t agree with him. Odd thing, though–on several occasions when I emphatically did not agree with him, I find myself, unprompted and over time, slowly coming around to something a little closer to his position. So when I saw the title of the new Locus article, my immediate reaction was “Ok, convince me.”

Took about two paragraphs. Continue reading →

The Company We Keep

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In the last several months I’ve heard more than one established pro say something along the lines of “I’m sure glad that I broke in when I did. It’s a lot harder now.”

Whether you accept that premise or not depends mostly on how you define your terms. If you’re working strictly at novel length, that’s one thing. If you consider “breaking in” the process of making your first few decent short fiction sales and going from wannabe to neopro, then the statement is absurd on the face of it. It’s not easy to sell to a top-notch market starting out, and the fact that some people manage doesn’t change that. It wasn’t easy 10-20 years ago and it’s not any easier now, and if it was much if any easier back in the true pulp era I’d be amazed.

If, otoh, you define “breaking in” as establishing yourself and becoming a recognized name in the sf/f field, that’s a different kettle of herring. Over the past twenty years or so that’s gotten quite a bit harder. There are a lot of reasons for that: competition from other media, a fragmented readership, et many ceteras. Whatever the reason(s), I think it’s quite arguable that establishing yourself in the sf/f field is harder now than it’s ever been.

So why do new writers insist on making it harder than it has to be? Continue reading →

A Brief “FYI” on the Lord Yamada Series

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I know some of you are familiar with the Lord Yamada series, my stories about a minor aristocrat in Heian Japan who makes his living as a “nobleman’s proxy,” basically a private investigator who handles situations, mostly of a paranormal nature, that his social betters either can’t handle or would be too embarrassed to try. (For anyone who isn’t familiar and wants to know what I’m talking about, The Mansion of Bones in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #19 wouldn’t be a bad place to start. It’s online and free). Now then–I’m bringing this up because of a misunderstanding that cropped up at this week’s writer’s group. Someone referred to Yamada as a samurai. Continue reading →

Ghost Trouble: The Casefiles of Eli Mothersbaugh

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Pardon the commercial interruption, but I believe that some of you out there might actually want to know this. After several months delay, I’ve finally assembled the complete (and  I do mean complete) collection of the Eli Mothersbaugh Ghost Hunter series in ebook (Nook and Kindle) edition. This includes all seven of the Eli Mothersbaugh stories previously published plus five stories written especially for this edition. And by “especially written” I mean just that. The intent all along was to include these stories as originals in a collection of the Eli Mothersbaugh series, and that’s what I’m doing. I won’t guarantee that there will never be another new EM story after this, but in my mind the series arc is complete, and right now I can’t see writing any more of them. I consider this the definitive edition. Continue reading →