Archive for the ‘SFWA Blog’ Category

Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 21 – Patterns for Presenting the Problem: Elements 4-5

If the main character is sympathetic and interesting, the reader will root for her and want to see what happens. If some of the particularities of the character and problem are surprising to the readers, it will generate more interest than if it’s something they’ve seen many times before.

Pay to Play Anthologies

Vanity anthologies are a popular way for unscrupulous companies to make money on writers’ hunger for publication. By far the most common vanity anthology scheme is the free contest scheme, in which writers are enticed to enter poems or stories in a competition, and then pressured–though usually not required–to buy the anthologies in which their work appears.

Write on the River 2011

2011 WRITE ON THE RIVER CONFERENCE SHOWCASES PACIFIC NORTHWEST LITERARY TALENT Wenatchee’s year-round writing organization has outdone itself this year, bringing three New York Times best-selling authors and an experienced homegrown array of predominantly Pacific Northwest authors and editors to the upcoming May 14-15 conference.   Held at Wenatchee Valley College, this conference has become […]

In Memoriam: Joanna Russ (1937-2011)

Joanna Russ (b.1937) died on April 29, 2011, two days after entering hospice.  Russ was admitted to hospice following a series of strokes. Russ received a BA from Cornell in 1957 where she studied under Vladimir Nabokov.  She began publishing science fiction in 1959 with the short story “Nor Custom Stale.”  In 1960, she earned […]

The Interminable Agency Clause

An “interminable agency clause” (sometimes called an “interminable rights clause” or a “perpetual agency clause”) is language inserted into an author-agency agreement whereby the agency claims the right to remain the agent of record not just for the duration of any contracts it negotiates, but for the life of copyright.