Category Archives: Thoughts about Writing

Public Readings.

Posted on March 24, 2019 by Marion

In early March I attended FOGCon in Walnut Creek California. One thing I always attend at FOGCon are author readings. In one session, I heard a writer named Matt Maxwell read from his independently published novel Queen of No Tomorrows. … Continue reading →

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Aluminum Leaves; Update #1

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Marion

I got an email from my editor that she reviewed my revisions to “Aluminum Leaves,” the novella Falstaff Books accepted, and the story was being sent on for copy-editing. This is exciting! My revisions satisfied her questions and there are … Continue reading →

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Raising the Stakes; Orphan Black

Posted on October 11, 2018 by Marion

“Raising the stakes.” It’s something genre writers think about (hear about, read about) a lot. With some genres, like thrillers, mysteries and romances, the common wisdom is that action has to start very soon on the page and, to paraphrase … Continue reading →

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The Professional Writer, One Model

Posted on September 30, 2018 by Marion

I follow a lot of writers on Twitter and Facebook, and I read quite a few writers’ blogs. It’ll be no big surprise that lots of well-established writers, at least genre writers, still have day jobs. They sell their work … Continue reading →

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Beyond the Stars; Unimagined Realms is Available Now

Posted on August 26, 2018 by Marion

Beyond the Stars; Unimagined Realms is out now, available on Kindle for ninety-nine cents. It dropped on Friday; It’s now Sunday evening and the book is: #8 in Kindle Store, ebooks, SFF, Science Fiction, Anthologies #16 in Books, SFF, Science … Continue reading →

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Where You Can Find My Work

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Marion

A short story of mine called “Adagio for Tiamat Station” will appear in Beyond the Stars; Unimagined Realms on 8/24/18. I’ll post the link as soon as I have one. I don’t have a ETA on my fantasy novella from … Continue reading →

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MCWC, 2018: Looking in the Rearview

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Marion

This year’s Mendocino Coast Writers Conference was good for me. Vanessa Hua, who taught the short story workshop, chose a different element of story to examine (setting, dialogue, stakes, character, etc) each day. We opened with a writing exercise and … Continue reading →

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Update on a Writing Project

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Marion

I got edits and rewrite requests back from one editor the day before yesterday. She’s so smooth. She’s got that classic good editor thing going on. It goes like this, “I love this! It’s really good, just what I wanted. … Continue reading →

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Naming Conventions; What They Are, What They Signal

Posted on July 6, 2018 by Marion

I was thinking about fantasy naming conventions this morning because I just finished a second-world fantasy that didn’t have one. One group of people had a certain style of name. (Mostly the writer stuck a random letter Y into various … Continue reading →

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To Outline or Not to Outline

Posted on June 30, 2018 by Marion

Outline versus discover. Execute versus imagine. Planner versus “pantser” (short for “seat of the pants”); all of these are ways of saying that some writers diligently outline their work before they write it down, and some plunge into prose on … Continue reading →

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