ApolloCon Writer’s Workshop

 Word count: 1,275 Calling all Texas writers! ApolloCon is running its annual writer’s workshop Saturday 9 am to noon on June 27 (the con runs from June 26-28). I’ll be facilitating the workshop this year. The deadline for submitting your short story or novel excerpt is MAY 29. For for more information about the workshop please visit Apollocon Writer’s Workshop or e-mail me at writers_workshop.2009@apollocon.org ApolloCon is a lot of fun. I went last year Read more…

Writing lessons — full tilt boogie

As you might have noticed, I’ve been racking up the word count lately. This is unusual, because normally my output is about 200-300 words per day. Part of it is a self-imposed deadline, but part is a sort of frenetic energy that I’m expressing in words. When I wrote Gordath Wood, there were times when eking out 20 to 30 words was impossibly hard, but there were also stretches of 1,000 even up to 5,000 Read more…

50,000 words — how did I get here?

Word count: around 1,400 Music: Bellevue Jubilee, their only album Deep Dark South The song Just The Moon will play over the credits of Gordath Wood when it is made into a movie. : -) Do you ever read Salon’s advice column, Ask Cary? It’s a freaking train wreck. I usually ignore Cary’s answers; the real entertainment is the letter and the comments section. Anyway, this one: My husband is too creative to work, was Read more…