First, a combination of the holidays and being quite sick (with an annoying gut issue called mesenteric lymphadenitis) has caused me to be unable to contribute properly to my usual postings. I apologize for this and hope to be able to resume shortly. I am now about 1/3 of the way through the sequel to Phoenix Rising, currently titled Phoenix in Shadow, and have started a couple other things. Now, as the year has just ended, it's time to fantasize about getting awards. Yes, I know I don't write the sort of stuff likely to get [ Continue reading... ]
Women and the Adventurer’s Census (Kicking Ass and Taking Names)
August 19, 2013 By 9 Comments
I've on occasion been asked "what made you decide to have a woman as your main action character?", or something to that effect. Honestly, I don't really work that way. I don't sit down and say "Hey, I should write a story with a character that is X". I think of some neat story idea, and the characters I create are the ones that fit the story. That said, I suppose the fact is that it would never have occurred to me NOT to have at least some of my stories with truly kickass heroines. Looking over my books published thus [ Continue reading... ]
Musings on Fanfiction Part 2: Fanfiction/Fanworks and Creators
December 12, 2012 By 4 Comments
Prior to becoming an author and interacting with people on Livejournal and some other sites where fanfiction became a major force, I was only aware of "arguments" about fanfiction in a pretty narrow set of senses – whether it fit with canon or not, and whether it was well done, or not. I had really never heard any serious arguments about whether it was right or wrong to do, and the few times I'd heard it I thought these were minority (and very silly minority) opinions. I was … mistaken in that impression. [ Continue reading... ]
Musings on Fanfiction Part 1: My Experiences
December 10, 2012 By 3 Comments
The creations of fans of various media have gained more and more exposure and recognition – both good and bad – over the last several years. It isn't uncommon to see an author or other creator bemoaning the fanfics written by various fans, or even threatening legal action to stop said fanworks from being spread. Here I'm going to talk about fanfic, mostly, but touch on some of the other fan-produced material, giving my view on it as both a long-time fan of many things and as a published creator of such things – an [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: Eric Flint
November 28, 2012 By 1 Comment
I've described elsewhere on the site how I managed to end up getting published through the clever strategem of insulting the editing skills and moral choices of Eric Flint in his editing of the James Schmitz reissues. Here, I want to talk about the influence Eric has had on me outside of that specific sequence of events. People who read some of my older postings (in the 90s and before) would likely see, at some point, my mentioning that I wouldn't detail some particular idea because I intended to use it in my [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: The Dawn of the Network Age
October 17, 2012 By 7 Comments
I grew up as part of the last generation that can remember computers being something that only Scientists and Universities and Governments had – arcane hunks of metal with das blinkenlights and whirr-whirr-whirr tape drives and big, washing-machine sized magnetic disk drives (which held orders of magnitude less than your USB thumb drive does today). So while ARPANet/the Internet was born when I was considerably younger, I was part of the first generation who had the opportunity to see and operate a computer when we [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Prince of Bryanae
September 4, 2012 By 25 Comments
Prince of Bryanae is a self-published novel that does everything right. It starts by having a fast-moving, well-written story as its core and reason for being, but in addition the author, Jeff Getzin, has gone those extra miles that, sadly, few self-published authors seem to realize are necessary; he has obviously had professionals provide him with editing and layout as well as a well-done cover painting, and the result is a fully professional novel that can sit proudly next to anything the big houses produce. I will admit [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: Steven J. Reed
June 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
"Who?" I hear everyone asking. "Never heard of him." No, you never did, almost certainly, unless you read a post I made on my LiveJournal about five years ago. Much of this Under the Influence post is taken from that tribute post. Steve was my friend -- one of my first "older" friends, someone significantly older than I was who treated me as a full equal (he was about 10 years older than me). From a social point of view, Steve would never impress anyone. He was very intelligent, but never ended up in a job or [ Continue reading... ]
What You’re Saying