Monthly Archives: June 2018

To Outline or Not to Outline

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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Cover me! I’m Goin’ In!

I’m starting to query agents. Of course, we all know that I shouldn’t have to search for agents. They should be flocking to me. In a just world, they’d be filling up my email, bringing me coffee drinks and flowers, … Continue reading

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Lily, is That You?

While I was in Cassadaga Microsoft, with the respect for the biological end user that is a hallmark of its brand, informed me that no, I was not going to use my baby laptop, because Microsoft was going to install … Continue reading

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Between the Lines: A Thought Exercise

Scene One: The bulrushes along the banks of a wide, placid river. The land beyond it is flat and green. Egyptian Princess: (Falls back, panting. She is sweating.) By all the gods! Body Slave: (Holds a newborn infant.) It’s a … Continue reading

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Three Travel Accessories

These three travel accessories made my Florida trip easy. Two of them are variations on the same theme, and each one fulfilled its function admirably. I love the Baggallini travel lanyard. It has a place for a passport, a long … Continue reading

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I Met my Deadline

This morning around 8:30 I emailed off a 36,000 word novella to my editor. It’s a piece I have a contract for with Falstaff Books. I delivered it on the deadline. Now we’ll have to see if Jaym Gates, who … Continue reading

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The Sunset Cruise

Tuesday evening I met Kat Hooper and we took a sunset cruise on the Schooner Freedom. The water was calm, so calm that on the way back the captain fired up the engine for a few minutes to get us … Continue reading

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