Eric T. Reynolds

GUD are having a pre-launch contest for issue 3. tlmorganfield's story "Night Bird Soaring" is in there and they need 100 entries to run the contest.

Spread the word! :-D

Where a hundred billion dollars won't buy you a loaf of bread.

I am currently working on a new novella.

But not the one I am supposed to be working on!

:D

And I saw Mama Mia with the girls last night, also catching up on much gossip and getting a promise of duck and partrige from E's boyfriend. Yay! Oh yeah, I enjoyed the film too. Laughed and laughed, especially at the end. If you haven't seen it stay for the credits. Really.

Is it worrying that the prospect of roast duck gets me all excited though?

Anyway, back to reality as the kids need feeding. Again. *sigh*

Rob and Smersh

re: Dr Horrible's sing-a-long blog. Yeah, I liked it. Check it out NOW while its still online.

 800 words, more or less - I can't promise they are good words, in fact, I'm sure that some are total crap but I had to make a start on that contest entry and so I sent the mess over to bug camillemulan with it. I think it is still jarring and trying to jam too much in too short a space ::sigh::

She is good with flash and this is nearly flash - twice.

Pesk!

But, I DID get more than the 200 word count as promised to kijjohnson</div>

My dear friend and excellent editor,kmfrontain, has announced that she is resigning from her editorial position. Sigh.

Karen helped me transform Sorcha's Heart from a short story to a novella capable of supporting future novels. She took on the challenge of Second Sight and kept me from throwing in the towel when I felt the story couldn't be salvaged. Because of Karen's efforts, each of my works to date is the very best I was capable of producing at that particular moment. She was a demanding editor who refused to allow me to produce less than my best...and I bless her for her patience and unflagging belief that I could untangle the mess I'd created. Her reward came in Dragons' Choice; I'd internalized many of her earlier lessons. I like to think Dragons' Choice was a relatively easy edit because she'd worked me so hard on Second Sight. *VBG*

Thank you, Karen. I'm going to miss working with you, but I have no intention of giving up our friendship! Be well, my friend, and never doubt that you are loved and appreciated.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

I received a nice note from an agent today saying that while she does represent YA, she isn't interested in fantasy. Sigh. Yet another decline to represent my novel...

BUT...something must have caught her attention because she went on to say that she would forward my query on to another agent in her firm she felt might be better suited to my project.

Now, I realize that the second agent may never contact me, but I still feel like dancing a jig! An agent forwarded my query to a colleague!! How cool is that?

Alright...my feet are back on the floor now...pretty much...

A student wrote me, saying, "Voice has never really been explained to me, although it is something that is really difficult to explain."

I wrote back: 

I don’t think most teachers know what they are talking about when we say “voice” either.

Here’s what I think is going on with voice much of the time: most student write in the same voice. It’s a dry, academic sounding thing that emphasizes linking verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being and been), passive voice (”The poem is told with skill”), and a slightly elevated vocabulary where the writers use words and transitions they would never use if they were speaking.  Voiceless writing also specializes in underdevelopment, undersupport and generalities.

The easiest way I know to develop voice, other than listening to your writing out loud, and then changing the wooden sounding stuff, is to use action verbs instead of linking verbs. Action verbs force you to make a choice. Instead of “The day was nice,” you have to write about something happening that makes the day nice, like “The breeze rustled through the corn stalks.” Linking verbs are all about not making choices, while action verbs are about identifying or inventing what was happening.

Since the act of choosing creates individuality, action verbs help to bring your voice to the front. You choose different details than the next person. You make individual choices, and that helps to bring out your voice.

That's the simple explanation or at least a good place to start.  Other components of voice comes from rhythm (not just length, but also an attention to the bounce of the words off the tongue, just like poetry), sound effects (assonance, consonance, alliteration, rhyme and near rhyme), figurative language (mostly similes and metaphors, but everything else too).

It seems to me that an extraordinary amount of what we call "voice" comes out of the details.  The more vague the writer is, the more voice also seems to fade.

You can't go too far wrong, though, by looking at how you choose verbs.

If for any reason, you haven't seen it, which seemingly applies to about 5% of you at the moment, go, go, go, remembering that it's only available for free until tomorrow, and then ( come back for two spoilery reactions. )

Be careful what you ask for, Joss. You just might get it, rather like your new anti-hero.

You seem to be asking for a new paradigm in entertainment. I hope you get it in such a way as it does not take over your life. It looks like you had fun doing this project, so maybe not.

( behind a cut, playing peekaboo. )

46) Harlan Ellison, Troublemakers, 2001
A collection of seventeen stories selected to appeal to the YA market, though too many have dated badly. As usual Ellison® wants to get several points across, hence the introductions to each story are very paternalistic – almost as if he wants to impart his own brand of street wisdom to the kids he never had. Best story: 'Jeffty is Five', of course, which is pretty untouchable and near enough perfect, closely followed by 'Deeper than the Darkness' and 'Sensible City'.

Ya know, I thought I published the photo links for the Elko, Nevada, Reno, Nevada, and Bookfellows signings... but apparently I hadn't.

Perhaps this will work:

http://i310.photobucket.com/albums/kk413/kelly_green_0317/100_2586.jpg

Next Saturday: July 26, 2008, several Hadley Rille authors will be appearing at Bookfellows in Glendale (Mystery and Imagination is the online name.) We are signing and I think reading at 2pm, so if you're in the area, come on in and enjoy the comraderie!

Ruins Metropolis authors include: Kelly (Jude-Marie) Green, Kim Vandervort.
Barren Worlds authors include: Geoffrey Thorne, Shauna Roberts, Andrew Tisbert, Tristan Davenport.

In celebration of this event, I'm finally posting my own Bookfellows signing report ( here )

Now that was a non-Hollywood ending I can get behind.

http://www.beachcalifornia.com/grunion-run-annual-schedule.html

Not only is it that time of year, it's the right day: July 19, around midnight, the grunion will be running at Sunset Beach. Yes, that's right across the street from my current digs. I will take my camera and see if I can manage to startle some fish trying to spawn.

I mean, spawning on the beach has a long and hallowed history. There's even a drink named after that activity.

Though I don't think there's a drink named "Grunion Run." Don't think I'd drink it if there was.

Our flight from Manchester to Chicago yesterday was uneventful, but our flight from Chicago to El Paso was delayed a full two hours due to bad weather. By the time we got in, James and I had been awake for a full 24 hours, and I'd suffered considerable stomach grief to boot. Blech.

There's internet access here in our condo-thing, which pleases me greatly. So far, it's just me, James, Dad, Rachel (his wife; I'm not sure I can call her my step-mom, though, because she's only 10 years older than I am), my grandparents, and my great aunt. My brother, Jenna's family, and my two younger sisters will all arrive tonight.

In the meantime, James and I are taking a drive out to Roswell, because it's not far from here!

94 degrees F here and the emergency oil burner technician who came to fix the hot water turned off the power to work on the oil burner, then drove away. I cannot open the fridge until power is restored and am both hungry and hot. The laptop needs recharging, and so do I. I'm off to a nearby pool and it's adjacent snack bar. One hopes the landlady will have things fixed by the time I get back.