Category: Miscellaneous
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Finished through Lesson 20 on the new Secret Writing Class today
Lesson AND worksheet — took a couple of days on this one, but this was one of those strange sideways-thinking lessons that lets you get at parts of your story that are going to be unexpected and exciting for readers, and that will give you fresh perspectives soon your characters and world. Like what I…
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Ohio 3 goes dark — 1331 words and an unexpected callback
And darker yet. My MC had one of those “best news in the world, worse news in the world” days today. And while she had the last part of truly wonderful news, I got a big chunk of writing to finish up Chapter 3 and got 729 words into Chapter 4 before I managed to…
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Last day of the year… and about ready to get back to work
It hasn’t been the best year in my life. It hasn’t been the worst, either. I wrecked four first drafts of my Ohio Series (books two through five) by exuberatant pantsing. After a longish Think Week and some time spent away from fiction writing and away from deadlines, I’m rested and ready to go through…
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Civilization Versus The Full-Body For-Keepsies Panty Raid… and The Survival Value of ADD
When I was a kid and my family lived on the western tundra of Alaska, my dad took me hunting and fishing with him. We were bringing in food for the table in a place where agriculture was impossible. I loved tagging along and helping out. I was nine, so for hunting I was just…
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Today is brought to you by math…
This isn’t the way I want to spend a Friday, but I cannot ignore the fact that I have to sort all my receipts, mark every single item that is deductible, gather up all the papers, pack them up, and get the box to my accountant. Even really shitty years produce a stack of paperwork,…
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Origin of the phrase WILD HAIR UP HIS ASS: a true story
I ended up looking up the origin of the phrase “wild hair up his ass” this morning, and discovered there is shit-all about it on the internet. This in itself is astonishing — it’s the INTERNET, you know? It knows everything. But apparently not. The best I could find, well, the only thing I could…
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No Man’s Sky: They Nailed It!
In spite of everything (and there’s a lot of “everything” going on right now), I took the entire day off yesterday to play a video game. Not just any video game, though. The one for which I went out and bought a Playstation several years ago, and the one for which I dug out my…
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Follow-up on my resignation from SFWA, with statement from SFWA’s president
Where this comes from: A new SFWA member happy to have qualified—who is also one of my writing students—contacted me privately to present misrepresentations of what I said here that were being presented in SFWA’s private forums. I will post MY first reply, the reply from SFWA President Steven Gould, and my definitive response: MY…
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Building a website that creates and promotes your writing in ONE step
No big secret that Dan and I are building new software for my sites. He’s developing classroom software for me for the Holly Lisle Online Writing School, and connectivity software for me for Readers Meet Writers. BUT, using the same framework he’s developed, he’s also building replacement writing site software for me for HollyLisle.com with…
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Surprise Story Collection for Christmas
My moderators (who are all both writers and graduates of my courses, and who are the mainstays of the Think Sideways Boot Camp writing community) simply floored me with as Christmas present they put together. And since the present was for me, but can be enjoyed by you, too, I’m going to copy the post…