Is there anything quite as sad as unfinished stories? The bright promise of beginnings, the building strongly up to a climactic . . . nothing there? I’m sure I’m not the only writer with unfinished stories in her file drawer and on her computer. But today I’m not only talking about literary projects. Because all too often, people’s lives can be unfinished stories, too. The Unfinished Stories of Too-Early-Ended Lives My mind leaps to all the young people in the…
The day came! You might remember that last week I wrote a blog post titled “Any Day Now,” about how long it was taking to get my latest book, Bone of Contention, into print. All the unexpected amounts of time things took. All the unintended mixups. Not to mention all the delays beyond my control! The waiting isn’t quite over yet – not all of it. But the day came, at least for one thing! My Amazon pre-sale promotion is…
Our latest Weird Sisters Publishing project has turned into a series of illustrated books. Yes, my novel Bone of Contention is the next publication in the lineup as I write this (pub date: September 24, 2024). There’s still work to do for that one, but the XK9 “Bones” Trilogy isn’t the series I want to talk about in this post. It’s The Windhover Tetralogy. We’ve had plans to reissue some of my late brother-in-law Warren C. Norwood’s books since before…
What’s the proper balance between political opinion, professional life, and writing? Every writer, every publisher, and indeed every individual person must decide how to delineate their own personal “proper balance.” Here at Weird Sisters Publishing, the eponymous sisters – G. S. Norwood and I – see many things the same way. But not all things. Recently I’ve come to realize that the expression of political views in the public-facing, professional sphere is one of those things. G. is more reticent…
We got to know some of our fellow Dealers Room Denizens at the sf conventions we attended in 2023. They are an eclectic, creative lot. Ever since our season ended I’ve been meaning to write a post that mentions some of our favorites, but it just never came right. However, now I realize that the start of December is the perfect time for such a post. All of the small creative businesses I list here have websites, sell online, and…
By G. S. Norwood, abetted by Jan S. Gephardt Tomorrow is the first anniversary of Deep Ellum Blues’ publication, and some of our readers want to know. Will the Deep Ellum stories continue? To that, we’re happy to answer an emphatic yes. Ms. Eddy’s adventures aren’t nearly over yet. But when’s the next story coming? Well, that’s a little harder to say. Death in Deep Ellum, the working title for the third story, is a murder mystery. It’s required some…
By Jan S. Gephardt One schedule-change. That’s all it technically boils down to. One simple scratch-out on a calendar. I’d planned on going, but now I’m not. Except, it’s not a simple thing at all. Not simply one schedule-change. No, it’s actually a whole end-of-summer tipped upside-down in a cascade of if-this-then-that change, after change, after change. Deciding not to go to FenCon, it turned out (as I knew it would), led to way more than one schedule-change. I Love…
By Jan S. Gephardt What’s your first thought, when you see or read the phrase Strong Female Protagonists? What memorable characters come to mind? Do you smile at the idea of finally seeing more strong women in leading roles? Do you grind your teeth a bitt, at the fact that Strong Male Protagonists aren’t pointed out? You can search for “Strong Female Protagonist” in several genres on Amazon. There are BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) categories for “FICTION /…
By G. S. Norwood Seems like everybody was eager to call it quits on 2020. But how do we launch 2021, to make sure we’re doing it right? Tradition Last July the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association cancelled the 2021 Tournament of Roses Parade, making do, instead, with a televised assortment of celebrity appearances, musical acts, and film footage of floats from years past. One of my favorite New Year’s Day traditions—Gone! But there are lots of other traditions for…
By Jan S. Gephardt To anyone who asks, “Can you tell me about your book?” I can only offer hints and glimpses. Of course, that’s all any of us can offer, short of a full read. But which hints and glimpses? It becomes marketing It becomes marketing, whether we authors and our might-be-readers care to think of it that way or not. We not only want to give the asker a good idea of what our story’s about—we want them…