My Agent Told Me To Make A Blog

I am aware of an issue where Wordpress users are unable to comment on posts. I've looked into this, and it seems to be a problem with Wordpress and the OpenID system Blogger uses. That is to say, it's Wordpress's fault so I can't fix it. If you want to comment but don't have a Google or Blogger account, I've enabled the option for you to put a custom name & url ("Name/URL" in the dropdown menu). Sorry for the inconvenience if you tried to comment and couldn't!

Now, don't get me wrong, I love Star Trek--especially Deep Space 9. I feel no need to pick sides here, even though I know the DS9 and B5 fandoms have had some, uh, friction . But in my mind, what's better than one amazing sci-fi drama set on a space station? Two amazing sci-fi dramas set on space stations! I suppose if you really, really pushed me to answer as accurately as possible, I'd say Star Trek: TNG is the all-time greatest sci-fi series, and I think a lot of that has to do with its cultural influence and the precedents it set. Babylon 5 , sadly, didn't reach nearly that level of widespread awareness and acclaim. Which is why I'm here to tell you about it today. On first viewing, Babylon 5 looks like a hokey, low-budget rip-off of DS9. I remember, several episodes into season 1, I was wondering what the big deal was about the show, and consulted the internet for reviews. It was okay , I thought, but it wasn't exactly as ground-breaking as I'd be

You'd think I'd get more used to having an agent, not less. I'm sure as time goes by, my reasons for loving my agent will only pile onto the list. I've heard other authors talk about how wonderful they are when it comes to contract negotiations, fighting on your behalf with the publisher (the book cover, for example), and generally keeping your writing life in order. That stuff is all part of publishing-land, which I have yet to explore. For now, I'm a mere initiate to the Agented Authors Club. But it's an excellent place to be! I love having an agent in general, and I also love my agent. ( Caitlin McDonald of Donald Maass ) 1. She Has Superpowers Apparently she can wave a magic wand and come up with ten different ways to fix plot holes, character arcs, structural issues, and whatever other dilemmas I run into. Problems that have stumped me and my writing partners for years are like breakfast to her. Not only does she have a zillion ideas, those ideas

I can't outline. I can't do it. I thought I was an outliner, I wanted to be an outliner, I really tried to do it. But it turns out the more I write, the more I have to admit to myself I don't work that way. Generally writers like to categorize themselves into plotters or pantsers, gardeners or architects, outliners or discovery writers. In plain English, the difference is whether you plan everything ahead of time, or figure it out as you go. I always figured planning ahead was the obvious superior. How else could you end with a bang! How else could you guide the plot and characters along the appropriate path, and plant all the needed foreshadowing, and follow a logical structure? If you just make it up as you go, wouldn't you just meander all over the place and run into walls left and right? Weeeeellll... not really. And I learned this the hard way. Pull of Gravity required a decent amount of organization, because it has a non-linear structure. I had two timeli

For today's Setting Inspirations I have some stunning pictures of New Zealand vineyards. Not only are the rows of crops gorgeous, the buildings themselves are big, breathtaking, and enchanting. They often have courtyards, fountains, gardens, and historical decorations for the tasting rooms. Every winery was unique, between the "feel" of the grounds and the taste of their wines. I also learned that many of these places have free wine tastings at their cellar door, and while organized wine tours are lots of fun, you can create your own "wine tour" very easily and cheaply. The majority of these photos are from Marlborough or Canterbury. Many of the entrances are covered in arches and vines. The buildings themselves have unique designs or an old, historical feel.       The best part, of course, is the vineyards around the grounds or out back. Usually the tasting room has a good view, with a deck or courtyard so you can sit outside.

I need to take a minute to air some grievances here. Apologies if this comes across more curmudgeony than usual. Since I've started blogging again and trying to learn social media, I've cruised through a lot of author blogs. As far as the "everyman" sort of blog goes, those written by my peers in similar situations to myself, I'm getting awfully disillusioned. There are, of course, some very helpful and inspiring blogs out there, and I'm also not talking about the websites of agents or extremely successful authors, like, I don't know, Neil Gaiman or somebody. But a lot of the I'm-an-aspiring-or-newly-self-published-author type of blogs do a very good job of making sure I don't come back. I won't touch on layout or ease of navigation today. While that's a big factor, it's not what made me angrily mutter to myself and trudge over to blogger to complain. My two major gripes are these: 1. Long strings of paragraphs full of inane th

Having written is a lot nicer than trying to write something in the first place. It's terribly satisfying to have a polished, finished product, which you can then curl up with in the quiet of your home and hug and fondle. But man, getting to that stage can be pulling teeth sometimes. (PS, I have a new appreciation for that term, as I think anyone who's not a boarded dentist pretty much hates trying to do complicated dental work. Ugh teeth. ) In the course of working through large-scale rewrites, I've been experiencing a sensation that I can best liken to a rubix cube. Chapter by chapter, I undo everything and turn it into a big mess. I stare at the screen and complain and pull at my hair. Figuring out how to fit the pieces together seems like an impossible headache, and sometimes I just have to fiddle around making moves here and there. But by the end of editing a chapter, it all clicks into place, and suddenly the final product is that much closer--like when you twist

It turns out space travel wrecks the human body. So much for our fanciful dreams of gallivanting through the galaxy, right? This realization was a lot like when our anatomy professor pointed out that things like dragons and gryphons are impossible because of the wing-to-body ratio required to fly as weight increases. He was all, "There's a reason there are no flying birds bigger than a dog" (and the awesome giant fliers have gone extinct). But back to space travel. I went to a veterinary conference for exotic animal vets (to learn about bird stuff), and the keynote speaker there was a vet for NASA. Yeah, that blew my little mind. Sci-fi and vet stuff generally hang out in different corners of my life, but for a whole hour, this guy talked about training for space missions, showed pictures of himself in space, and discussed the physiological effects of space travel on animals and people. And because he was talking to hundreds of geeky veterinarians, a lot of the questi

I'd like to share some of my absolute favorite books with you. I have a lot of non-SFF favorites ( East of Eden and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, for example), but I'll only be talking about SF today. I had the idea to share recent reads with you guys and make recommendations, but I realized my definition of a "recent read" is a bit variable, and I wanted to lay some groundwork first. So I'm going to cover a lot of ground with one post here, by pointing out the big milestones in my sci-fi reading experiences. In the future, I'll talk more about books as I come across them. This is not at all a comprehensive list. Rather, it's a collection of important books that influenced me, which I can talk about intelligently since I've read them. There are plenty more great sci-fi books still on my to-read list. Vet school interfered quite a bit with my reading, so I'm still playing catch-up trying to read the great literary classics as well as SF cla

There's an old adage that "writing is rewriting," which alludes to the fact that the first time you put story to page is only a fraction of the process. For the non-writers among you, I'm sure you're aware that novels go through many, many drafts before taking their final form. What they don't tell you is that you get it as perfect as you possibly can, only to discover there's a ton of things that actually need to be fixed up and redone--over and over again. Novels are a lot like butterflies. That first draft is a little wee caterpillar, maybe a really ugly one, or maybe one that catches your eye. You set it aside so it can develop in its cocoon. Then you come back to turn it into a butterfly, with your fresh, critical eye that allows you to viciously hack that cocoon apart (my analogy may not be working as well as I hoped). That cocoon-to-butterfly process is the polishing stage: first what you can do by yourself, then with the help of alpha and beta

Scientific writing and creative writing complement each other in some ways, and totally contradict each other in others. When I'm reading or writing, I completely switch my brain over depending on what I'm doing, and don't even think about it. In vet school, I did a lot of technical writing. Sure, I was working on my first novel when I had the chance, but most of my time was spent working on assignments, case studies, and medical records. As an actual vet, I still read a lot of journal articles and textbooks. And there's some definite differences in scientific writing. Things Not So Good For Creative Writing 1. Passive Voice This one always really sticks out to me. Research is meant to be objective, and so it's generally described as such. It's standard and expected to use passive sentences so you can avoid saying "we" or "I": "The culture was incubated at room temperature" or "A neurological exam was performed." I