Okay, I am re-compiling my blogroll since the move to WordPress. Are you one of my SHU peeps? One of my LI peeps? A writer I’ve met? An editor or agent? Someone who has an awesome writing-related website? If you’re interested in being on my blogroll, leave a comment on this post with your link, how you’d like the link presented (your name, your book’s name, your publishing house if you’re an editor, etc) and what category(ies) your site might fall into (writer, editor, agent, writing tips, education, contests, markets, etc). Alternately, you can poke me via my Contact Page and give me the same information privately, if you’d prefer. Two links, max, per person unless there’s a compelling reason for more.

A reciprocal link would be lovely, too. I enjoy link love!

Please note: non-writing-related links will not be allowed and spam comments will be printed and summarily burned in a ritual in which I implore the Flying Spaghetti Monster to shrivel up your tongue (and possibly other body parts) and cause it to fall from your mouth (or other bits). Just fair warning.

Tags: blogroll, LI, links, SHU, website, writing

A writer should read within his/her genre, absolutely. The obvious reasons are because you learn what’s been selling in your genre, what others have done, etc. You can consciously study others’ work. However, what is not as obvious is that reading deeply in your genre also allows you to subconsciously learn the mechanisms of that genre. You absorb how to write it. As an example, when I was young, I read voraciously in the horror genre (back, yknow, when there was one :p). I mean I would probably read thirty books in a year, just in horror. Some of it was awful, some of it was amazing. As a writer now, I don’t write horror, per se, but some of my stories do contain horrific elements. Those are the easiest bits to write for me. Those scenes tend to need the least revision and editing. And I firmly believe that it’s because of how deeply I read in that genre.

As an editor, I know right away when an author hasn’t read much in the genre she is trying to write in. Why? Because the settings are stock, the characters tend to be stereotypical and the plot is often predictable. And it’s because they don’t know what went before them. They don’t know the tropes of their genre, therefore that cannot avoid or otherwise set the tropes on their ears. You can’t play with something if you don’t know it exists.

Every genre has its rules, its reader expectations and its tropes and, as writers, we have to be educated in those items. In the same way that one cannot *effectively* break the rules of grammar unless one is very familiar with those rules, the effectiveness of writing within a genre is going to be tied directly to knowledge of that genre.

Do you read in your genre? Classics? Current stories? Why or why not?

Tags: genre, reading

EPICon starts tonight with a mixer and booze! For those of you who don’t know, EPICon is the official conference of the Electronically Published Internet Coalition (EPIC). Every year, EPIC takes nominations and members vote on the best eBooks of the year over multiple categories. The EPIC eBook Awards banquet is Saturday night and I am excited to share that one  of my authors at Loose Id, Jessica Freely, has been nominated for her eBook Rust Belt! This was the first book I worked on with Jessica and it’s still one of my favorites! If you haven’t read it, check at out at the Rust Belt Loose Id page!

I am also teaching two classes, one on Friday called Pulling More than Punches: Writing Great Action Scenes. I think the title needs to be redone though. Though it’s a very snappy title, really we don’t want to pull punches. We want to punch the reader in the head with the action. So maybe I’ll be changing this title to something like: Not Pulling Punches. Or something. I suck at titles. Except this one, which is my other class:

Manuscript Corsetry: Tighten Up That Story! Yep, it’s a revision class. I hit on lots of things to watch out for in your ms, but also different methods of approaching revisions. I think it will be a fun class!

I think I’m also taking pitches for Loose Id, but I’m still a little hazy on those details. So that’s my agenda for this weekend. I’ll be tweeting periodically (which reminds me that I need to put my Twitter feed back on my blog).

Anyone else out here in rainy Williamsburg, VA?

Tags: classes, conference, EPICon, teaching

Though I loved the look of my blog at BlogEngine, it just didn’t work as well as WP, so we’re back over to the original platform. Please be patient as I get all my ducks in a row again. I have to work on getting the links active, re-adding my Twitter feed, and various other things. Maybe I’ll make a “to be done” list and make it a sticky post!

Thanks again for your patience! The dust will clear soon and I will make good on that resolution I made two months ago!