Tag: writing

the essential kit

EPIIIIIIIIIIC

April 22, 2013

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

April 16, 2013

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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the essential kit

Not this world.

April 7, 2013

Me, to Mom: Want to do some hired sitting this week? Mom: What book are you about to write now? Me: Just polishing up the last Walker Papers. NEXT week I get to write the Spirit of the Century novel for Fred Hicks/. Mom: In a *week*? Me: It’s only 60K. It is possible there is something wrong with me. (And also, no, I am not going to be writing a 60K novel in a week, although it’s *theoretically* possible. That theoretical world, however, is not this one. :))

the essential kit

Hugo, Arthur C Clarke Awards…

April 4, 2013

My takeaway from the (now annual) kerfuffle surrounding the Hugos (and now the Arthur C Clarke award, as it has just been announced to have an all-male shortlist) is twofold: 1. I must spend more time developing my friends list, Twitter follows, and Facebook friends*, because clearly women who write urban fantasy will only be nominated for such crap if they have a lot of brainless girl readers who are willing to boost them up**, since after all, books people just like to read obviously shouldn’t end up on award…

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Mountain Echoes by CE Murphy

conversation with ted

March 14, 2013

Me, worried: I’m at the climactic battle & I’m only 75k into the book. Ted, phlegmatic: You’re at the end, Catie. It always takes you until the third draft to get the end right. Me: But I don’t know if I’ve got 20k of wrap-up! Me, hours later: Oh, shit, I see what he was saying. It DOES always take me multiple drafts to get the end right & this whole book is The End. Riiiiiiight. Okay. No wonder this is so messed up. I have, in fact, completed the…

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