I had a great time at Archon 48. I stayed super-busy, and that’s how I prefer it. As I normally do, I displayed artwork in this convention’s excellent Art Show – and also brought selections from my late sister and brother-in-law’s art collection to display in the Resale Gallery. I had a full programming schedule. That meant it was a good thing I also had an excellent partner, K. R. Gastreich, to help share the duties at our dealers’ table!…
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…
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…
My friend, Deb, is part of the mystery writers group that blogs as Jungle Red Writers. It was her turn at bat last week. She turned to me, searching for ideas. We brainstormed our way through Halloween décor, pumpkin-centric agriculture, and spice cake recipes. At last, I suggested she investigate Halloween music and the tradition of the monster’s ball. She wasn’t sure what I was talking about. So I dragged Camille Saint-Saëns, Modest Mussorgsky, and Edvard Grieg into the conversation….
It’s time for an Archon Overview. Time to look back from a bit more than a week’s distance and share my thoughts about this year’s event. This was the penultimate convention for my four-con “season,” but for today’s post I want to focus just on Archon 46. This concom (convention committee) gets a lot of things right. They have a long, solid history of good art shows, now ably helmed by Anna Mulch, and a dynamic programming team. This year…
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 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…
I love to read. If you’re reading this, you probably love to read, too. I can get completely lost in a fictional world, but sooner or later my dogs insist I take them out. Or the cats get really obnoxious about that whole food-in-the-bowl-now thing. That’s when I reach for one of my trusty bookmarks. Or, as one friend and avid reader calls them, “Quitter Strips.” How could we read without them? Whether they are automatically inserted by our trusty…
By G. S. Norwood I was a surprised when I learned my novelettes, Deep Ellum Pawn, and Deep Ellum Blues fall into Amazon’s “Occult Horror” category. Sure they deal with the supernatural, but Horror? I don’t think so. I am not a horror fan. While I deeply respect Stephen King, and am happy to recommend his memoir/advice book, On Writing, I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t read many of his other works. I don’t enjoy being scared. It’s…