Busy Day Links

Whew! I'm finally catching my breath! It's been a busy couple of days around here. I've finished the first draft of a 3000 word story that I've been afraid to start. An editor gave me an outline of what he wanted but the story in my head decided not to follow the outline exactly. Since I couldn't get past the story in my head, I decided to write that one, luckily the editor liked the first draft and wasn't pissed that my story took a left turn in Albuquerque. And since the beans are ready in the garden, I've started picking and freezing them along with a few other veggies that are ready for the freezer. Busy days, but I've got links!

Deborah J. Ross has an interesting essay on writing over at the Book View Cafe. http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2010/08/10/the-craft-of-writing-structure-shape-and-interest This quote caught my attention:

"In general, the more intense the drama, the slower the pace should be. This means drawing the moment out and digging deep."

Michael Bracken passed along a link about writing maladies. http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/08/do-you-suffer-from-one-of-these-writing.html And yes, I suffered from more than one of these over the years!

I was eavesdropping (or is that eyedropping?) on Brian Lindenmuth's Twitter account and found links to a pair of blog posts about writing religion into science fiction. Some interesting points both in the posts and the comments. http://www.professorbeej.com/2010/08/religion-in-science-fiction.html is the first, the second is in response to the first link http://bit.ly/a5HvQf

Laura Shapiro takes a look at Shirley Jackson's work at Slate.com http://www.slate.com/id/2253850

And a market for those of you who write Historical or Alternate History shorts called, not surprisingly, Alt Hist. They're looking for short stories up to 10,000 words, along with reviews articles, and artwork. Submissions are through Submishmash. This will be both a print and e-pub magazine with royalty payments. http://althistfiction.com