Genderflipping covers

So Maureen Johnson, YA author, threw down a gauntlet a couple of days ago regarding the way books are marketed and asked her jillions of Twitter readers to gender-flip some of their favorite book covers. To make a cover that might have been offered up if the book was by a person of the other gender, or was gender neutral (initials instead of full names. She’s written a terrific article about the whole problem of gendered covers here, and it is truly worth a read. Really truly honest to God.…

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Stormcloud sunset

overwhelmed by sarcasm

I was just briefly overwhelmed by sarcasm over on Twitter. Alastair Reynolds (whom I like very, very much) was commenting on stories he’s reading for (I think) a ‘zine, the first 3 of which he’s read have all been grim, dystopic, pessimistic near-future SF, and said, “Hey kids: you can do more than one thing with science fiction, you know?” But by that time the sarcasm had already seized me. I said, “So does this mean the hopeful aspect of my planned climate change trilogy is Right Out?” and it…

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the essential kit

EPIIIIIIIIIIC

I just finished reading Carol Berg’s THE DAEMON PRISM (which, like nearly everything Carol writes, is on my list of Favorite Books), and it got me to thinking about what makes epic work and what makes it work on a huge, international bestseller level. Carol’s epic fantasy usually focuses on a handful of people, rather than a cast of thousands, like (for example) GRRM. They’re very different storytelling styles and obviously bring different things to the table, both of which I find appealing in different ways. I wonder if one…

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Mountain Echoes by CE Murphy

& that’s a wrap

Aaaaaaaaaand that’s a wrap: SHAMAN RISES went off to my editor yesterday afternoon, and now it’s all over but the revisions. I have one book left under contract and then I’m unemployed. :) I vacillate between relief and panic on that topic, of course. It does rather help knowing that if push comes to shove, I expect I could run a Kickstarter (perhaps for the 3rd Inheritors’ Cycle book) to cover my bases for a while. In the meantime, however, I do have a number of projects lined up–3 short…

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Sanity prevails.

Sort of, anyway. Every once in a while* I must remind myself that I do not have to do All The Things All The Time. And sometimes I must say No Stop Don’t Take On Any More Projects, Because Otherwise Your Head Will Explode. So in a momentary fit of sanity prevailing, I declare myself full-up of projects for the next 18 months. Not taking any new ones on**. This does not, of course, include projects on proposal which may sell, or the ones you guys don’t yet know about,…

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