Writing Excuses Episodes & Caribbean Retreat There are two new Writing Excuses episodes to talk about: Fan Writing, with Chris Garcia The Convention-Author Relationship, with Deirdre Saoirse Moen Both episodes were recorded at Westercon/FantasyCon earlier this year in front of a live audience. Chris has worked in fanzines for years (and won a Hugo Award…
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts in November, and tons of people all over the world will take the challenge to write a 50,000-word novel within the month. To help keep you motivated as you write, I’ll be contributing a Pep Talk this year (also check out my 2011 Pep Talk). One of this year’s sponsors is StoryBundle, and they’re…
Writing Class Videos & Updates First some updates on Words of Radiance, which comes out in less than two weeks. It’s almost here! Tor.com has posted what it was like to be a beta reader (note: I’m not currently looking for additional beta readers) and spoiler-free reactions to the book, and they’re mailing out daily context-free snippets. You can see…
Preview Chapters, Writing Video, Writing Excuses & Updates The Words of Radiance audiobook is now available for preorder on Audible in the US, as well as on CD via the links at the right. Kate Reading and Michael Kramer are well into recording the narration, and it will be released the same day as the hardcover and ebook. The…
My Class Starts Today For those who aren’t aware, I teach a course entitled “How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy” at Brigham Young University. The course is focused on the nuts and bolts of having a writing career. Characterization, worldbuilding, plotting, and publication. In previous years, a graduate student recorded my lectures as a…
WITHOUT A SUMMER + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode is called “Fake It Till You Make It” and in it Mary, Dan, Howard, and I talk about the things we do or have done to feel professional. Also, as I mentioned earlier this week, Writing Excuses has been nominated once again for the…
League of Utah Writers Roundup This Weekend The most recent Writing Excuses episode is entitled “Pantsing.” In it, Howard, Mary, Dan and I talk about discovery writing (a.k.a. “seat-of-your-pants” writing). Check it out. I’m doing two events on Saturday at this weekend’s Roundup in Park City. First at 12:00 noon, Pemberly and I will join Howard and Sandra Tayler…
Interviews + Updates The most recent ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation covers the penultimate chapter, including the meaning of the name “Rashid” as in the Sands of Rashid. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode with Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and me talks about the villain problem. By that we mean when the hero…
Szeth T-Shirt Contest, Lecture Video + Updates InkWing has another T-shirt contest going on at their blog, for a shirt that will be available at Comic-Con in San Diego. They don’t have a picture of the shirt yet, but it’s going to use Ben McSweeney’s image of Szeth from THE WAY OF KINGS. InkWing has also…
I Hate Dragons Speech Competition + Updates My assistant uploaded a new ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation. This one covers chapter sixteen, which has various obscure references including a dinosaur eating the “C” section of science fiction books. There are two new episodes of the Writing Excuses podcast up. First Mary, Howard, Dan, and I…
