If anybody out there is a Pacific Northwesterner headed to Orycon this weekend, keep your eyes out for the amazing Galen Dara and me, Wendy Wagner. Galen’s showing art in the art show and I’m on a number of panels. Both of us have those rad Inkpunks pins, so get ’em while they’re hot!
Author Archive > Wendy Wagner
Better writing
Last night, I sat in an airplane and wondered how I could be a better writer. The golden glow of the reading lights filled the plane’s interior, and every few seats, someone had left their window open. California moved beneath me in a half-seen, half-suggested pattern of black earth and ribbons of sparkling light. Everything […]
The net worth of your network
The other day a friend asked me: “How do you network the way you do?” And at first I was like “What? I don’t network. That’s for schmoozers and politicians!” And then I got to thinking about the ways my relationships with other genre writers and editors has changed my life, and I realized that […]
Rewrite Requests
I have a confession to make. Out of my three (okay, 2.5)Â pro sales, every one of them has come from a rewrite request. Two of those stories took *two* rewrites to make them fit the editor’s vision. And right this very moment, I’m awaiting response for another rewrite request. Frankly, I’m terrified. Getting a request […]
Control the spice of your universe
Let’s talk about sandworms. Whoah. Those are some pretty amazing monsters. They grow to the size of mountains; they live in an inhospitable desert where barely anything else can survive; they hunt via vibrations; they secrete mind- and body-altering drugs that change the shape of an entire universe. Whoah. Nice monster, Frank Herbert! There’s […]
Writing & Margaritas Don’t Always Mix
Okay, I thought I was going to write about nonfiction tips & trick, kind of an expansion of my blog post about writing bios, but honestly, I couldn’t focus enough to come up with anything. It’s 70 degrees in Portland; there’s a perfect breeze, and everybody is sitting out on their patios drinking cocktails. I […]
Burn, baby, burn
Once upon a time, I wrote a novel. I signed a contract with a very small press. My book passed through an editing process with a contracted editor. My book got cover art. I had the loosely scheduled release date of “Fall 2011.” I scraped up my first blurb. And then my publisher closed down. […]
Why CREEPY is my thing
I wasn’t creepy until I fully embraced my inner writer. That person was born from a depraved childhood in the 1980s. See, we lived so far out in the boonies that we didn’t have nice, clean, FCC-approved television. We had books. And unlike those poor sad children of the 1960s, who parents might have […]
Apprentice Word Smiths
In the time before Walmart and department stores, when people needed metal goods, they went to see a smith. A gold or silver smith for jewelry. A coppersmith for a pan. A blacksmith for iron goods. Â When the pan got a hole in it, folks would set it aside and wait for a tinker–a traveling […]
Working out
If you’re anything like me, you added “work out more often” to your New Year’s resolutions. And if you’re like me, that means doing writing exercises to further hone your craft. Â (If you were thinking I meant stuff like running and doing sit-ups, I should direct you to Sandra Wickham’s blog–I build my physique by […]
