Altered Fluid Interview at Clarkesworld

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This got posted last week, but I was busy moving and only had time to Tweet it. People often ask published authors how they got to where they are. The route is different for every author — but for me, it’s included a number of good writing groups. My current group is Altered Fluid, a New York-area group that’s been running since 2002 or so. Every writing group has its own culture, and what I like about AF’s is that they’re a group of similarly dedicated people — we meet every week, for example — who understand the value of

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My name in lights

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…well, not quite, but on the cover of Locus‘ August 2010 issue, at least: There’s a nifty interview with me in the back of the issue, too! For those of you who don’t know, Locus is the industry news magazine for the science fiction/fantasy field — think of it as the Forbes of the geek set. So it’s Big Stuff to get this interview; seriously squee-worthy. There’s other good stuff in the issue too, including an interview with Pat Rothfuss and a kickass review of buddy Alaya Dawn Johnson’s unique epic fantasy “Spirit Binders” trilogy (highly recommended). So if you

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Gone Fishin’

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…well, not really. Actually, I’m in the process of moving to a new apartment this week, so I’m pretty busy. But in addition to that, I’m going to be guest-blogging for the next few weeks over at SF writer John Scalzi’s Whatever. I’m not very good at blog multitasking — as those of you who read the Magic District might have noticed — so I might be a little quiet here ’til I’m done there. That’s OK, though; you’re welcome to read me there too. There’s three other people guestblogging with me, and I think all four of us are

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Now THAT’S fan appreciation!

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Just got directed toward this gorgeous piece of jewelry inspired by The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, made by “Queen of the Cat People”. Its title is “The Death of Enefa”. And say, that’s a familiar well-read book underneath (click to big up)… Want to see closer-up? Oooh, is that a white knife? And drops of blood? Holy crap, this is beautiful. Many thanks to the artist for sharing such a lovely piece! Want it? You can go bid for it now as part of a fundraising auction to benefit the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center! They’ve got other great stuff up

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Stuff Authors Like

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OK, despite the post title, I’m not really planning to speak for all authors here. Just me. Active Nora is active! As I continue to recover from hardcore novel-writing mode, I’ve begun once again exploring activities that had become all but lost in the abyss of time and labor. Like… I went to a movie! I know, it’s been awhile. But I went last week to see “Inception” with the folks in Altered Fluid, and we absolutely loved it. The layers of storytelling; exposition delivered in infodumps that didn’t (to me) feel dumpy, the director’s obvious assumption that his audience

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Bridges and Centers

/ 13 Comments / On Writing, Thinkythoughts / By

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of “bridges” since reading this analysis of a prominent New York Times reporter’s writing on Africa, and his admitted tendency to center his stories on the non-African foreigners (usually Americans) present, rather than the people whom the stories are ostensibly about. Texas in Africa — correctly, IMO — notes that In the end, this answer is just another variant of the “good intentions are enough” mindset. It excuses stereotyping in the name of awareness, while assuming that Americans are too parochial to be able to recognize, relate to, and applaud the work

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Yonkers News

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(Somehow that doesn’t sound quite as exotic as “German News” from my last post. Oh, well.) Folks in the New York area: I’ll be appearing at a fundraising event at the Yonkers Public Library on Sunday! (Download the ad poster here.) Basically, the YPL brings in a slew of authors each year for its Book Fair, which is partly sponsored by Barnes and Noble, and is a fundraising event. I’ll be reading from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and also doing a signing, starting at 2 p.m. The event is at Barnes & Noble, 2614 Central Park Avenue, in Yonkers. So

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German News

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Couple of announcements. First, for those readers who live in Germany, the German version of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms — Die Erbin Der Welt — is available now from Blanvalet! To that end, the publisher has generously offered to do a giveaway of 5 copies via Darkstar Fantasy News, a German review/fan site. These folks did a great interview with me recently (here’s the English version), so if you want a copy — and, uh, you speak German — hop on over and check out their giveaway! And in other German news, good news — after some behind-the-scenes discussion regarding

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Brainstorming Immersive Inclusive Worlds

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Long post is long! And full of intellectuobabble. But hey, this is for Readercon; it’s appropriate. I mentioned this in my previous post about Readercon, but I’m going to be running the following workshop there (description as submitted to Readercon; I think it’s been trimmed down for the program book): Farah Mendlesohn’s Rhetorics of Fantasy notes that the immersive fantasy should function on all levels as a complete world. However, many immersive fantasies fail to incorporate one of the most basic elements of any human society: our tendency to divide ourselves into socially-constructed subgroups such as race, gender, class, etc.

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