Six years ago today I started a writing chat room colloquially known as the War Room. Its purpose was to create a space where the writers I knew could log in and encourage one another to write. The idea is basically a chat room where you don’t chat, you just shut up and write, but in the presence of others, so that there’s some accountability. It’s a way of creating a work environment for a job that often expects you to get it done with nothing but your own self-discipline…
As mentioned previously, I’ll be at Dysprosium, AKA Eastercon 66, from Friday morning to Sunday evening. My schedule is as such: Friday, 6:45 pm – 7:45 pm: The Ultimate Urban Fantasy Panel Something nasty in your neighbourhood? Everybody wants to go to the big cities, so why not the supernatural? with Charles Stross, Mike Carey, CE Murphy, and Alice Lawson as Moderator. Saturday, 10 – 11:15 am: Kaffeklatsch “Armstrong,” my information says. I’m not sure if that’s a location or if I’m kaffeklatsching with someone named Armstrong. :) Sunday, 4:15…
A fellow writer over on Twitter was asking for example elevator pitches to show to some of her friends as examples, and since I’ve got, oh, eight or seventeen of them that I’ve been using for years, I threw several of them at her. An elevator pitch is what you want to have prepared for when you find yourself in an elevator with the high-powered head editor of your favourite publishing house and she says, “Oh, you’re a writer? What are you working on?” This is not the moment to…
I have loads of personal history with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough’s Seashell Archives series, which she wrote in the early eighties, and which I discovered, uh, probably in the early 80s, although possibly in the mid-80s :), and quite adored. They were light funny epic fantasy with cursed or bewitched heroines, and I’d never read anything quite like them. I met Annie in Ireland in the early 90s, and she was very supportive of me being a writer. I sent her a copy of URBAN SHAMAN when it was published. We…
KIM STANLEY ROBINSON WILL BE IN DUBLIN IN APRIL *DIES OF EXCITE* Seriously, you have no idea. Meeting him is like bucket-list material for me, and I was SO HAPPY to get to meet him at Loncon, because I figured it was a once in a lifetime chance. And now he’s gonna be doing a thing in Dublin in TWO WEEKS and I’ll get to meet him AGAIN. #diesofexcite In fact he’s doing an entire week of teaching and lectures in Limerick and Ted was like “Are you going to…