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Key Conditions for Reader Suspense:
Part 3 – It’s gotta be difficult
It’s one thing to say that something bad is going to happen. It’s quite another to know that kidnappers are going to cut your finger off with a pair of wire cutters. It’s one thing to have someone say something…
Hugo Award Nomination Period is Open
Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, is delighted to announce that the 2011 Hugo Award nomination period is now open.
Guest Post: Blowing Up Planets
Doomsday scenarios are a dime a dozen. When a villain claims to be on the verge of ‘destroying the Earth’ he/she usually means killing everyone/everything on it. But sometimes simply killing all humans isn’t good enough. Unfortunately even the vast…
Quick Updates for 2010-12-30
Industry News and Member News for Will McIntosh, Joanne Merriam, Maureen K. Power, and Anne M. Pillsworth.
Highlights for Children is SFWA’s Newest Qualifying Market
Today the board of directors of SFWA unanimously voted to add Highlights for Children to the list of SFWA qualifying markets. This venerable magazine began publishing in 1946 publishes short fiction for children. It has served as an early gateway to reading…
Nebula Awards Guest Post: Sex, Skin and Secret Messages
What is it that makes us entertain fantasies about mating outside our own species? Surely this can’t be in our DNA; the mule, sterile offspring of a horse and donkey’s mating, is an example of the evolutionary dead end that…
Guest Post: Experiments with E-books
Earlier this year, I was studying my royalty statement from DAW, comparing my print and electronic sales. I’ve been hearing for years that print is dying and e-books are the future, so I was rather surprised to find that electronic…
Key Conditions for Reader Suspense:
Part 2 – The Three Problem Types
With this post we begin looking at the key conditions that build reader suspense. Stories are made up of four main ingredients: character, setting, problem, and plot. All of these are important, but problem is the engine that makes suspense…
Holiday Hiatus
Because even watchdogs have to rest sometimes, the Writer Beware blog will be taking a break over the holiday season. Unless there’s a really juicy publishing story, this blog will be on hiatus until the new year.
Guest Post: Steampunk/Alt History Week
Living in Color
Picture this–it’s the 1870’s. An African American pharmacist in knee-breeches and a frock coat has just made a startling invention–a refrigeration device. Okay, it’s an improved model designed for corpses, which makes me wonder what other mad scientist stuff was…
Quick Updates for 2010-12-23
Member News for Jennifer Jackson, Scott Dalrymple, Kameron Hurley, Michael Sullivan, Vonda N. McIntyre, and Cat Rambo.
Some Tips on Evaluating Literary Contests
Since I so often get questions about the legitimacy of literary contests (see, for instance, my posts of December 16 and December 7), I thought it would be helpful to post some suggestions for evaluating any contests you may be…
Nebula Awards Interview: Catherynne M. Valente
I had no idea what that book was actually about, or any notion of characters beyond September and the Green Wind. But the book as it exists in the world of Palimpsest presented certain rules, and I always find it…
Key Conditions for Reader Suspense:
Part 1 – It’s All About the Reader
Sometimes it feels like there are a thousand things to remember when writing a story. New writers who make lists of these things soon begin to drown in them. But I’ve come to realize that many of these “rules” don’t…
Quick Updates for 2010-12-18
Industry News and Member News for Jennifer Brozek, Matthew Johnson, David Levine, and Paul S. Kemp.
Guest Post: Why Go to the Museum?
Every fall, I teach my students Walter Pater’s Conclusion to Studies in the Renaissance. What I’m talking about here is not so different from what Pater is talking about: he says that we need to experience each moment fully, to…
Tidbits
Blogger JM contacted one hundred literary agents with the following question: What is the single biggest mistake writers make when querying you? More than 50 responded. Here are the problems mentioned most frequently:
Blogger JM contacted one hundred literary age…
Quick Updates for 2010-12-15
Industry News and Member News for Tony Pi, Eugie Foster, Jon Armstrong, Blake Charlton, Wendy Wagner, Sigrid Ellis, and Ben Loory.
Guest Post: Write What You Know… or Don’t Know…
Or Want to Know… Know What I Mean?
A week or so ago, I asked a bunch of writers to share some of the best advice they’ve received and how they’ve used it. At the same time I asked them to share some of the worst, the weirdest,…
Note to members regarding Dorchester Publishing Co.
By vote of the board, Dorchester Publishing is on probation as a qualified Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America market for a period of one year, December 10, 2010 – December 10, 2011.
One Way Not to Get Published
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
Taking a cue from Janet Reid, who over the weekend posted a truly amazingly bad agent pitch letter (yes, I do know who the agent is, and no, this person does not have any…
Quick Updates for 2010-12-13
Industry News and Member News for Keffy R. M. Kehrli, Rhiannon Held, Vera Nazarian, and Sir Terry Pratchett.
Guest Post: Fairy Tales Reimagined
Even as picture books based on folk and fairy tales are on the wane, the world of children’s books is seeing a rise in fairy tale retellings for middle grade and young adult readers. In fact, this corner of the…
Nebula Awards Interview: Rachel Swirsky by Larry Nolen
Rachel Swirsky was nominated for her novelette “A Memory of Wind”. Instead of asking that tired question of why you became a writer, I’m curious if there were ever any moments in your writing career where you were tempted to…