Why I’m Reading Only Women for a Year – By the Numbers
First an update. These are the books I’ve read since the last time I blogged: “The House of Mirth” by Edith Wharton “Justice Calling” by Annie Bellet “Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell “My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante “The Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler (underway) It’s been almost six months since I started, so I’m at the turn. Now, for some data. I was curious about my reading habits before I started this challenge. To a certain extent, I had it in my head that reading a year of only women wouldn’t be that big of a deal for me. Read more…
How I Edit
I’m currently editing The Iron Harvest right now. This is the sequel to The Lead Cloak, for those who don’t know. But editing is hard work, so instead of editing, I thought I would write a post on how I edit my novels. Step One: Finish the book. You can’t edit a novel until it’s finished. Yes, you can edit chapters and paragraphs, but that is usually just tinkering in the margins. You can’t truly know how a single chapter fits into the book until the whole book is done. There are people who say “don’t edit” while you write, but in practice Read more…
I’m reading only women for a year
Earlier this year, K.T. Bradford published an article with the simple title, “I Challenge You to Stop Reading White, Straight, Cis Male Authors for One Year.” It set a lot of people aflame. “Reverse sexism” and “reverse racism” and such. (Which, I should be clear is a dumb argument.) Neil Gaiman, who is the literal “posterbook” for the article, tweeted his support. And John Scalzi added, “Someone once told me they wanted to read my books but were reading only women for a year. I said, cool, my books will be there in a year.” I didn’t act on the post. I Read more…
The Iron Harvest: First draft is complete!
It’s always a good feeling to complete the first draft of a book and write those final two words: The End. That’s especially true for The Iron Harvest, which I started nearly two years ago. And The Lead Cloak I started four years ago, knowing some of the events that would happen in this book. So that’s a long time I’ve lived with the book. And there’s still a lot to do! There’s editing, sending to a few beta readers for feedback, and the proofreading and creating the ebook, paperback, and audiobook. My goal is getting all that done by the fall, and Read more…
2014—The Year in Writing and Other Creative Endeavors
On this last day of 2014, I wanted to take a moment to look back over the year in writing and creative pursuits. I didn’t accomplish nearly what I’d hope. But there were some nice surprises on here as well. I wrote the first 200 pages of The Iron Harvest, the sequel to The Lead Cloak. I wrote The Little Book of Boards, a board member’s handbook for small (and very small) nonprofits. It will officially launch early in 2015, but the Kindle book is already available. On a lark, I wrote The Queen of Neptune, a Veronica Mars novella. Read more…
I went and did it. I wrote fan fiction.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with the show, but let me tell you a little bit about Veronica Mars. The show—featuring a high school detective with sass and grit—was surprisingly adult, and surprisingly fun. Somehow it balanced real drama with sharp wit and banter reminiscent of a 1940s noir. Both Mary and I loved it, and we were sad to see it go after its third season. This year, Veronica Mars was revived. The 2013 Kickstarter that financed the movie paid off handsomely—the movie was released widely and renewed interest in the show. An official novel was released that picks up the Read more…
National Novel Writing Month 2014
In 2007, I decided that it was time to get back into writing. I’d written novels throughout high school and college, roughly one every 18 months. But when I graduated from college, I found it was hard to keep writing. I didn’t have a desk in my first apartment, I was still adjusting to the realities of working, and I was still struggling as a writer, too. I was such an English major. I wrote books modeled off the literature I read. Those books, as a result, have some real problems. Now, I don’t want to bash them. They took Read more…
Timelessness and Parenting On The Pastry Box
There’s an interesting website I’ve been reading for a little while called “The Pastry Box.” It’s an assembly of essays, squibs, and reflections that started with a web/tech/design focus that has evolved substantially from there. I was honored they published my piece “The timelessness of parenting” on their site today. It mentions Twitter and an app that I really like. But it’s really not about tech at all–or perhaps it’s about tech in the way that it is conspicuously about the ways that I am trying to limit it (and how my kids are helping). I hope you enjoy it. I was Read more…
The iPhone
My last two letters sent via TinyLetter touch on many topics–from chess to the 1939 World’s Fair to transistors on a computer chip. But they actually go together quite well because they both are about the iPhone in one way or another. How we make calls, how the phones stack up against old computers from the 90s. I will confess that I’m biased, but I think they are both good balances between informative and interesting. Here’s the letter called “Long-Distance” and the second letter called “50x.” Worth checking out for both the history and future of technology. And, of course, you could read them Read more…
Frank Herbert and his Lost Archives
I thought this was an intriguing project and I wanted to share it here before the Indiegogo campaign wrapped up. Erik Jorgensen is working on bringing the “lost archives” of Frank Herbert to light. Herbert’s writing as a journalist is not nearly as well known as his masterwork Dune, of course. But what a journalist like Herbert chooses to pay attention to is revealed in his writing. Jorgensen has digitized his writing from 1949 – 1953 in Santa Rosa, California. Maybe someone should do the same with Herbert’s writing in the Puget Sound area, no? Good luck, Erik, on getting the Read more…
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