WTF World?

Stuff unrelated to writing or the industry, generally world events.

Missing Voices

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What should science fiction sound like? Or fantasy. A short story of mine, “Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters”, was published in the UK anthology Postscripts a few months back. I’ve sold the audio rights to Podcastle, which is going to run the story sometime soon — and I’m glad for this, because it’s one of my favorites. See, this story is set in New Orleans, in the days immediately preceding and following Hurricane Katrina. In some ways, it’s my love letter to the city that I know what it means to miss — […]

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Is there a Rule of Three in SFF?

/ 37 Comments / Controversies, On Writing, Thinkythoughts, WTF World? / By

Somebody in my Twitter feed linked this today, which I’d never seen before. Some insightful commentary from the late Dwayne McDuffie, a kickass comic book writer and trailblazer within that genre, talking about the Rule of Three. No, not this one; something else: Which got me thinking, of course. I’ve said before that most of the criticism I get as a writer is perfectly thoughtful, interesting stuff, which is doubtless helpful to those who are trying to decide whether to buy my books or read my stories. But I’ve seen a very few reader responses that, IMO, crossed the line

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And now a word from our sponsor

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Said sponsor being me, that is. I own this site, pay all costs, and derive most of the benefit from the labor that generates its content, though it would be pretty silly of me to invoice myself. That said, I could invoice myself, if I wanted to, because the work that I do writing posts for this blog has a real cost. Take that post I did a little while ago on feminization, and the fear thereof, in epic fantasy. It took me about four hours, spread over several days, to write that post — and it’s not my best

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Even if I tell you, you won’t know.

/ 4 Comments / On Writing, WTF World? / By

That raspy, too-sweet voice. Lil was in my home, making me breakfast, after eating some Orderkeepers that Shiny had murdered. “What in the Maelstrom are you doing here?” I demanded. “And show yourself, damn it. Don’t hide from me in my own home.” She sounded amused. “I didn’t think you liked my looks.” “I don’t, but I’d rather know you’re not standing there slavering at me.” “You won’t know that even if you see me.” But she appeared, facing me in her deceptively-normal form. (A bit from The Broken Kingdoms, chapter 4.) As I mentioned in the FAQ post a

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Walkin in a winter WTF

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Local, writing-irrelevant griping here; all who are disinterested in the mundanities of my daily life please move along. You may have heard that the northeast US got smacked with a massive snowstorm a couple of days ago. It’s the northeast; it happens. But this particular Snowpocalypse has been exacerbated by the worst snow-emergency response I’ve seen since I moved to this part of the country. The snow isn’t the problem; the problem is the complete failure of New York’s administration to send snowplows, etc. into the non-Manhattan boroughs of the city. A few main streets have reportedly been plowed, yes.

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Election Catchup

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Seeing as I was jetlagged and sleep deprived last week on Election Day — though I made it to the polls anyhow — I was in no mental condition to post any sort of postgame analysis then, nor for a few days afterward (especially given that it was Launch Week). Now that I’ve had time to recover and process a little — I have mixed feelings. On the local level, I’m very, very glad that Carl Paladino did not become New York’s next governor. The last thing this state needs right now is a rabid dog at the head of

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China Miéville is not your Facebook friend. Owl Goingback might like to be.

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ETA: China reports the ersatz Chinas (Chinae?) have been removed. Behold the power of geekdom! And no need to spread further, now. Trimming this down, accordingly. Post title borrowed from Marie Brennan, from whom I heard about this. Basically, author China Miéville is having some issues with Facebook. I’ll let him sum up, in a letter (actual paper letter!) that I have reposted with his enthusiastic permission to all.

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The “harm” of political correctness: a rant

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This has nothing to do with writing, though it is partly inspired by some stuff I’ve seen in the SF/F blogosphere lately. Sorry in advance for that. Heard today about the decline of the Tribune company, which once managed some of the most respected newspapers in the United States. There are probably a lot of reasons why the company fell apart, not the least of which is the general decline of print media overall, but I was struck by this article’s descriptions of changes that occurred at the company headquarters when new management took over. Among other things, the new

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It’s Not the Same Story

/ 35 Comments / Controversies, The Mysterious Glowing Box, WTF World? / By

My staycation continues. It’s amazing that I can suddenly watch so much TV. I don’t watch much under ordinary circumstances, and when I’m in deadline mode I only turn the thing on to play video games for stress relief. Thus I’m usually horribly behind on just about any show that’s “hot”. I’m just now about to watch the first season of “Heroes” and the third season of Doctor Who… yeah, I know. But when people ask me how I find time to write… well, that’s how. This usually applies to movies, too. I think I’ve missed Iron Man 2; don’t

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Don’t Put My Book in the African American Section.

/ 72 Comments / Causes, The Industry, WTF World? / By

Very few things could lure me out of the fugue-state of finishing a novel, but a note that I received yesterday from a reader sent me into full-on rant mode: I just finished reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and I enjoyed it a lot. I was confused, though, to see that my library had chosen to shelve it under “African-American Fiction,” a separate section of the library. If this were standard policy for how the library handles African-American authors, I wouldn’t blink, but Butler, Delany, Hopkinson, and Durham are all shelved under “General Fiction” with the rest of the library’s

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