On Writing

I was re-reading a favorite novel lately, because its sequel is coming out soon and I wanted to refresh in preparation. Anyway, I was struck by the fact that it contained really good descriptions of several characters of color. So I thought that book — Griffin’s, below — deserved a shout-out, as do some others I’ve read that stuck in my mind. Which means — you guessed it — time for another post on describing characters of color! Other People’s PoC (OPPoC) Edition. (Previous iterations here and here.) As with the previous articles, this isn’t a claim or judgment on

Apologies for the silence here lately — but there’s been a good reason for it. I haven’t talked a lot about Book 3 of the Inheritance Trilogy here much because it’s been oddly fragile in my head. See, in the days before book deals and deadlines and whatnot, I was like most writers in that I wrote when it felt right. Didn’t matter what I wrote as long as I wrote something, every day. If Project A wasn’t being cooperative, I’d just shift over to Projects B, C, or D. Project A wouldn’t be dead, oh no — just silent.

A weird thing seems to hit me around this time every year — I develop a powerful, almost compulsive, urge to eat the same food over and over again. Last year it was good hot chocolate — not that Swiss Miss crap (is that even food?), but not too fancy either. I preferred Ghiradelli, double chocolate flavor, made with lactose-free skim milk. (OK, I didn’t care what milk it was made with. But I’m lactose intolerant and I drink skim milk, so…) Marshmallows not optional. The year before that it was sushi from this one particular place in Brooklyn. Thai

Some examples from my own writing, submitted for your consideration. Not a claim of correctness or The Best Way or anything of the sort. Just my way. And yeah, this is in part inspired by a certain very lengthy discussion of race, representation, and respect in the SF/F community that took place recently in the blogosphere. But I also just felt like sharing. ETA: And because this post continues to get hits months later, folks might be interested in Part 2, which was posted at the Magic District, and part 3, written a few months later. Some of this is