You can tell a lot about a fantasy novel by its glossary

/ 28 Comments / On Writing, Snippets / By

Was just working on the glossary for The Fifth Season. Glossaries are both fun and frustrating for me — fun because a glossary is worldbuilding at its most stark, and frustrating because it’s part of the story, and can enhance or detract from the reading experience if it’s mishandled. The tension between TELL THEM EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING, HA HA HA and tell them nothing, nothing, they don’t need to know gets kind of uncomfortable after awhile. That’s why I’ve asked that all of my glossaries be located at the backs of my books, rather than the fronts — because, like maps, […]

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Why I Talk So Damn Much About Non-Writing Stuff

/ 8 Comments / On Writing / By

A reader at NYCC asked me — not in an accusatory way if you’re wondering — why I spend so much time on social media talking about world events, social justice issues, health care, etc. I’m an SFF writer, after all; why don’t I just spend all of my time talking about writing? What I told her, basically, was this: when I talk about those things, I am talking about writing. How can I manage good characterization if I don’t understand the complexities of human behavior, and their motivations? How plausible will my fantasy worlds be, if they don’t demonstrate

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Author strength training: Reading reviews

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So, I saw Kameron Hurley (who’s got a new book out that I really need to get to ASAP) lamenting this morning on Twitter about something familiar: It's funny how I spent 15 years just trying to get a novel published, w/o considering how much more work would need to be done after that. — Kameron Hurley (@KameronHurley) October 1, 2014 It’s the thing they don’t really tell you in Pro-Author-Wannabe school: getting published is just the beginning. Or maybe they said it and I just didn’t want to hear it — because after all the effort most of us

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What I’ve been up to lately

/ 9 Comments / Conventions and Workshops, Natter, On Writing / By

So, it’s been awhile, blogosphere; my apologies. I would’ve updated sooner, but I had some technical difficulties (now fixed thanks to a move to a new web host) and a series of cascading deadlines that was… well, not fun. But for the first time in awhile, I’ve got room to breathe! So here’s what you missed, if you don’t follow me on Twitter or FB. “The Awakened Kingdom” and Inheritance Trilogy omnibus are on the way! You can preorder the ebook version now. Just sent off the page proofs today! And here’s the cover, if you missed it: Clarion! I

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A survey of my recent gaming

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And by “recent” I mean “I played it recently”, not that these are recent games. ‘Cause I’m busy, and sometimes it takes me awhile to get around to things. Spoiler warning on all of these, so I’ll put them behind a cut, but these are all old games anyway, so my guess is that nobody really cares about spoilers anymore.

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Small Acknowledgements

/ 13 Comments / Thinkythoughts / By

I miss WisCon. One of the reasons it’s been one of my favorite conventions — during the years I wasn’t personally boycotting it, anyway (it’s a love-hate thing) — is that I learn so much, often despite myself, and that kind of learning is always a pleasure. (So many mind blown moments.) But that said, it’s a 1000-person con, and while I’m a very functional introvert, I am an introvert; I need space and silence to recharge and reflect. So I’ve been doing a lot of that in the slightly-more-than-24-hours since I got home. In particular I’ve been reflecting on

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A note on my Wiscon speech

/ 18 Comments / Natter / By

Some friends asked me about a part of the speech that bothered them — namely the quote that I included from Delany’s 1998 essay, this line in particular: As long as there are only one, two, or a handful of us, however, I presume in a field such as science fiction, where many of its writers come out of the liberal-Jewish tradition, prejudice will most likely remain a slight force—until, say, black writers start to number thirteen, fifteen, twenty percent of the total. At that point, where the competition might be perceived as having some economic heft, chances are we

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Wiscon 38 Guest of Honor Speech

/ 3 Comments / Conventions and Workshops / By

[ETA 3/28/14: Added markup; text is still the same. Also, please note a discussion here about a line in the Delany quote that concerned some people.] Thanks to all the WisCon volunteers, members, and other supporters, who have given me the opportunity to speak to you now. Trigger warning: I’m going to refer to rape, harassment, racism, and other forms of bigotry and abuse in this speech. Also, profanity warning. That’s sort of standard with me. I’m going to start this off with a quote from Chip Delany, writing in the essay “Racism and Science Fiction” which was published in

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So, about that Seekrit Project I’ve been working on…

/ 17 Comments / 100K, Shorts / By

This is actually two! two! two! announcements in one, sort of. First, Orbit’s putting out an omnibus edition of the Inheritance Trilogy! Cover art is below, and it’s lovely, innit? Feels to me like it ties together my first published works with my upcoming works nicely, since the art’s in a similar vein with that of The Fifth Season. It will be available in print and ebook form. But second — note that little bit of text at the bottom of the omnibus cover. So, yeah. That’s the seekrit. I needed a bit of a palate-cleanser after writing The Fifth

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Confirmation bias, epic fantasy, and you

/ 45 Comments / Controversies, On Writing / By

Ya’ll, MedievalPoC is (hopefully) going to be at WisCon. By a funny chance, I will be, too! (Imagine that.) I am totes going to fangirl all over them. Posts like this are why: Seeing this post reminds me that someone I’ve known for years, and who has a rather expensive college degree, said these exact words to me in regard to ASOIAF/Game of Thrones this past Tuesday at a gaming tournament: “Things were just like that back then.” There were not enough faces for me to palm. I just ended up yelling, “When was that again?? In the good old

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