Here’s the length/naming convention guide from the SFWA: Novel — 40,000 words or more Novella — 17,500–39,999 words Novelette — 7,500–17,499 words Short Story — 7,499 words or fewer I have finished the first draft of my Chocolate Story novella, which is just over 20K. The end bugs me, because it’s cheesy, and cheesiness becomes […]

I’m trying to learn how to take better pictures. If you’ve known me for more than a month, you probably know that I get on wild hares to learn new things.  In fact, I go a little crazy if I don’t learn something new…about once a month or so.  These things don’t always turn out

I won’t catch everyone.  It’s just not possible. Thank you to Lee – your patience has seen me through more than just any trouble with our marriage, it’s seen me through days when I can’t believe in myself or anybody else.  Your sarcasm has seen me through everything else. To Ray – you have a

…everyone must read (The Guardian, U.K.) I’ve been looking for a reading project lately. I don’t think I can read 1000 novels a year. I mean, I could, if I didn’t have to do anything else. Also, I can pull out the ones I’ve read already, which should take care of about half. And if

A big thank you to Anu Garg, the only vocabulary website with insight into the human condition. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg A Happy New Year to all the readers from all of us at Wordsmith.org meticulous PRONUNCIATION: (muh-TIK-yuh-luhs) MEANING: adjective: Extremely careful, precise, or thorough. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin meticulosus (fearful), from metus (fear). Originally the

by Diana Wynne Jones. A modern YA retelling of the Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer legends.  Recommended for YA fantasy fans.  Spoilers follow. DWJ is one of the great YA writers.  She writes stuff that takes complicated family situations that would make most people go mental, and makes them comprehensible to teens.  In F&H,

by Gene Wolfe. This is how the world ends, not with a bang, but with a recursive whimper.  “Somebody tell me what that was all about.” I’ve been reading trying to keep up with the Gene Wolfe Solar Cycle Book Club for the last year.  RTTW was the last book.  I put it down and

by Charles Stross. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes Cthulu and who has ever worked in a cube farm. So there’s this guy who knows more about computer programming than he should.  When he accidentally writes an algorithm that threatens to destroy his neighborhood, a division of the British Intelligence rips him out

edited by Michael Reaves and John Pelan. Featuring short stories by Neil Gaiman, Poppy Z Brite, Brian Stableford, Elizabeth Bear, and Caitlin R. Kiernan. Pub 2003, if you must know; I happened to read it in a timely manner with the new Sherlock Holmes movie coming out. The premise of this book is Sherlock Holmes

I’m going to work on a bunch of blog posts this morning, then try to queue them up and have them publish themselves automatically throughout the week, because the wonders of clicking stuff and having it do stuff in a only semi-chaotic fashion makes my ovaries twirl.