Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, authors of Writing the Other, among other books, will be guest-blogging this week on Booklifenow. Please help welcome them–I think you’ll find their posts fascinating.
Here’s more about both writers…
Jeff VanderMeer | 28 February 2010
From time to time we’ll have guest bloggers here at Booklifenow during 2010. This next week, Tamara Kaye Sellman will be blogging. Be sure to stop by for her perspective on writing, the writing life, and much more!
If you’re not familiar with Sellman, here’s a short overview…
Jeff VanderMeer | 4 January 2010
The blogosphere saw a lot of discussion during late 2009 about short fiction submissions practices. My main concern with the discussion as it existed was a lack of strategic planning when it came to submitting short fiction. Which is to say, for many writers a top-down approach of submitting to the highest paying and most visible markets may make sense. But that there are good reasons to develop more nuanced approaches. Here, then, are seven points to consider when thinking about the submission of short fiction. (In altered form, the following post originally appeared in the comments thread on my blog, on a guest post by Jason Sanford.)
Also, no advice about short fiction markets is of any use to you if you don’t write a damn good story first. This may seem obvious, but I see far too many writers neglecting their craft by churning out stories at a ferocious rate. In this social media age, your mantra should be: SLOW DOWN. Take the time to edit. Put that story away for a couple of weeks after you do the draft. If you find that your second draft is pretty much the same as your first, you might not’ve seen the story’s full potential.
Jeff VanderMeer | 25 December 2009
One of the more interesting gigs on my five-week book tour was getting to go to MIT and lecture about Booklife at their Comparative Media Studies center. We had a big audience, and Kevin Smokler of Booktour.com was there to talk a little as well and then discuss relevant issues with me. Many thanks to Geoffrey Long for setting up the event.
MIT Booklife lecture podcast link.
(Matt Staggs’ Friday links post will return next week.)
Jeff VanderMeer | 2 December 2009
Nathan Ballingrud is a remarkable short fiction writer who has won the Shirley Jackson Award and had his work reprinted in year’s best anthologies. I first met him at the Clarion Writers Workshop in 1992. Pertinent to our discussion of “Chasing Experience,” I remember that the first day he locked himself in his dorm room and
typed furiously for a couple of hours. Suitably intimidated, we all thought Nathan was incredibly committed to his art. But, as he told me many years later, in fact he wasn’t typing anything: he was just nervous about meeting the other writers attending the workshop. Although Nathan talks about experience in the context of “genre” writers, I believe what he says is relevant to all writers.
(This week, by the way, I’m in the Carolinas speaking at Wofford College, Malaprops, and a Barnes & Noble in Burlington. Check out the full schedule for details.)