Not Another Writing Advice Post, UGH! – Passive Voice

Yes, another writing advice post. In fact, my first such post! Seems like an oxymoron, I know. The ‘not another – Ugh’ energy has more to do with how much writing advice there is out there, and my own hesitation over adding something useless or repetitive to the noise. My editor for the Mr. Mystic…

Got Masks?

A few weeks ago, I knocked out some masks for myself and my brother using t-shirts -- because I have waaaay too many t-shirts. Copyedits for The Mask of Mirrors are turned it, and since I'm in the ranks of the Covid-19 unemployed, I have some free time to make more.  I don't really need…

Level Unlock – Big Damn Trilogy Sale!!

Last summer, I started working on a collaborative project with Marie Brennan that ended up being more or less NaNoWriMo for four months straight. We finished the 220k word behemoth in October, tossed it back and forth between beta readers, our agents, and each other, and sent it out to editors this past spring. This…

My Worldcon Dublin Schedule

Worldcon Dublin is coming! I'm heading off a few days early so I can ride a bike along the Great Western Greenway and around Inishmore, but after that I'll be in Dublin with a few thousand other SFF geeks. Here's where you can find me: Making the transition from player to Games Master Format: Workshop…

My Favorite Trope — Time Travel, Pt. 1

We’ve all fallen down the bottomless pit that is TV Tropes (WARNING: Following this link will result in loss of time ranging from several minutes to several days or longer). Even if you don’t know what a trope is, you know what tropes are. For the purposes of this series, I’m not talking about the…

Clarion West Write-a-thon Wrap-up!*

The Clarion West Write-a-thon is over, and I'm pleased to share that this year was by far my most successful year, both in terms of donations and in terms of blitzing through my main goal. The first goal was to progress on the Super Sekrit Projekt, with 5k words a week. I can now share…

What I’m Doing This Summer

I've recently made passing mention to a super secret collaborative project I'm working on. I've been hesitant to say more because so often projects like this die before they ever get momentum. However, after six-ish months of planning, plotting, and worldbuilding, and three weeks of intense writing that have already pushed us past the 25k…

Changing Up the Pronouns: They/them edition

For a long time I didn't change my pronouns because I've spent my life correcting people on pronouncing my name, and it's exhausting and annoying. However, revising Chiaroscuro (especially the Sadaz chapters) has had me thinking a lot about pronouns, identity, visibility, and the importance of language in disrupting people's gender assumptions. For that reason,…

Art is not Apolitical

I went to see the touring production of The King & I on Thursday night (in order to get Hamilton touring company tickets, we had to get SHN season tickets, and The King & I is one of the season shows). Just before the King's song "A Puzzlement," in a line of dialogue that I…

Can the Subaltern Kick Ass?

We’re two games in on ‘The Path to Power’ chronicle, and I’m thinking I should have subtitled it ‘Can the Subaltern Kick Ass?’ because the entire party is made up of characters from colonized indigenous groups and allied Others. We have Altani, an envoy from the local nomadic Shoanti tribes who were violently pushed off…