Lilith Saintcrow's Blog, page 228

Andrew Sullivan is doing some of the best and most important coverage of the protests in Iran right now. There’s also Twitter, of course, and the mainstream media is just beginning to catch up.

Why is this important? Glenn Greenwald, Daily Reveille, and my friend RealThog offer some thoughts that illustrate different aspects of why people should care. Laura Ann Gilman makes a good point, too. You can’t stop the signal. Our interconnectedness as human beings is reaching the point of the instantane

The title kind of says it all. I’ll be hanging around a little, but most of my attention is taken up with the third Strange Angels book. It’s veered off in a totally different direction, which is good. The point at which I throw even the faintest approximation of an outline out the window and trust solely in the work to carry me is the point at which I’ve found the right path into the book.

Or at least, I hope.

Back soon, but before I go, a question. I’ve been wondering about the true cost of eboo

Crossposted to The Deadline Dames.

I see a lot of new writers abusing the Internet, or being abused by it, nowadays. So, in the vein of Jordan Summers’s recent Dame For A Day post, I thought I’d weigh in about various pitfalls of that lovely, wonderful timesuck.

I was amused and horrified to read about what Jordan calls “Internet authors”–writers who write around their Internet time, not the other way around. I was even more horrified when I took a hard look at my own Internet usage and…erm, well,

I’m over at the Witchy Chicks this morning, guest-blogging about writing paranormal. A big thank-you to the Chicks, especially Yasmine Galenorn, for inviting me!

Today I shall be trying something I have not tried before. No, it’s not rollerblading or skydiving. No, it’s not demon-hunting (done that) or recreational drinking (can’t do that anymore, got kids) or lumberjacking. Oh no.

No, today I shall be making French Onion soup, from a Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipe. Because I am comple

Reading Sedgwick’s Between Men has really opened up some avenues for thought. For example, while she’s talking about the tradition of mirror doubles in Gothic literature, I all of a sudden had this brainwave about Jane Eyre, my favorite book. (Tanith Lee’s my favorite author, Jane Eyre my favorite book. Yeah, I’m strange.)

So I started putting together a list inside my head of doubles in JE.

* Jane/Bertha (the mad wife)
* Rochester/St. John
* Mary and Diana/the Reed sisters
* Mrs. Reed/Helen
* Blanche

Day Two of the Painfully-Squeezed Internet Addiction. I got through 3.5K yesterday, a difficult scene of female violence and another difficult scene of reactions. Characters aren’t acting how I thought they would, which is a good sign. Usually when the fire of creation is burning apace, the characters start surprising me. I just have to relax enough to let the Muse tell me how it really is.

I kind of wonder what brainwaves I’m using during intense writing sessions. I am aware of the outside world

I’ve got a catfight, a run with werwulfen, and a midnight tango with vampires to write, so this is gonna be short.

You know what else kitchen timers are good for? Besides cooking and carving out little chunks of writing time? They’re good when one realizes one is perilously close to an Internet addiction. I’m giving myself an hour of Internet play with my coffee in the morning, then no more for the rest of the day. With a deadline moved up (long story, my fault, ACK!) and parenting to do, refresh

Cross-posted from The Deadline Dames.

This Friday writing post starts out with a question someone asked me on Twitter. (Look, I know–the publicity guy made me do it. I SWEAR.) Anyway, I often answer industry questions in my own little idiosyncratic way. This time someone asked me “Is writing a good book all you need to get an agent?”

Erm, well, how can I put this politely?

Oh, hell no.

A “good book” is not all you need. You also need discipline, people skills, the ability to follow directions and wo

I guess it’s true and David Eddings has passed on.

It seems like every couple of months we’re losing writers I thought were eternal.

Requiscat in pace, sir.

Tuesday linkage ahoy!

* Here’s an oldie but goodie: Richard Curtis on genre writers. I agree with very much most of what he says, barring a few things that haven’t been my experience. But then, I’ve never tried to write litrachur. I’m content with writing what I think is “ZOMG cooooool and then guess what happened? THIS!” and it just happens to fall into genre. “Literary” fiction seems far too diffuse to me most of the time.

* In that same vein, (kind of) Hal Duncan’s “What Is Literary Fiction?” F