Here’s the Press Release: For Immediate Release (Calgary, Alberta) EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing invites you to join us in congratulating the following authors selected for inclusion in Compostela (Tesseracts Twenty) edited by James Alan Gardner and Spider Robinson. About Compostela (Tesseracts Twenty) Compostela (Tesseracts Twenty) is an anthology of hard and soft science fiction stories that best represent a futuristic view of the sciences and how humanity mig

People tell me not to call myself “old,” as if denying it will change the truth of it. (My mom is still well at 97, so I have it in perspective.) Maybe they believe that it’s a sign of depression or giving up to think of oneself as old. But, to me, it’s just a fact of which I’m reminded frequently because my colleagues at Third Person Press, my “tribe” from Viable Paradise, my writing group, and most of the people in the writing forums I habituate are considerably younger tha

The other day while we were taking our evening walk, he told me about a “stupid mistake” (is there any other kind?) he’d made. Then he quoted the man who taught him carpentry, saying, “The sign of a good carpenter is the ability to cover up your mistakes and make them work.” This is a concept I’m familiar with. In art, we do this. You make a mistake in an oil painting, it’s no problem, just repaint it. That’s trickier in watercolor, but perfection is elusive at best, so you f

My indie publishing house, Third Person Press, decided to put together a ghost story anthology because we get more ghost story submissions than any other kind, too many for our other anthologies where we like to have a nice mix of genre sub-types. The resultant book, Grey Area, will be released in late October, just in time for Halloween. 😉 I had never written a ghost story before and in writing one for this collection, I finally clued into why people like them. They give a

Last year, an online acquaintance—Gary Henderson—from my Second Life writing group—The Quillians—got accepted to Viable Paradise Writer’s Workshop. I had never heard of it. I now know how “out of it” that makes me…but the point is that I finally did hear of it. I was impressed with what Gary had to say about it because if anything, his enthusiasm was greater after the experience than before, and that’s saying something. I decided, sometime during the ensuing year, to apply. I

As for the book itself, I’m still not sure about my title, “Plasticity.” I like it and it fits the subject matter, but it probably sells nothing. Perhaps that’s something to worry about three years from now when I’m still whipping the story into shape. Or…maybe it could be the title of the series. Hah. I know what that is. It’s my Delusions of Grandeur, which rise to the surface when I’ve just completed a first draft…of anything! Here’s my pitch: A young scientist reluctantly

For those of you in Cape Breton, hope to see you there, and a big thank you to Douglas for the opportunity and the evening. Here is his write up on the event: An evening of good food, short readings by some of Cape Breton’s most prolific writers, book giveaways, great music, and cash bar. Reserved Seating Only – No Tickets at the door – $20 per person (To reserve tickets contact boularderieislandpress@bellaliant.net Saturday, August 25th Ross Ferry Fire Hall and Community Cen

First, Chuck gives us a tool that will check your writing excerpt for readability. It gives an amazing level of detail. You will get a table with several grade level rating scales, so you can see what reading level the writing is geared toward. This information can be especially useful when writing YA. It also provides sentence information (percent of passive sentences!), word usage (number of adverbs!) (number of “to be” verbs!) and even what kinds of words your sentences st

According to news stories, Hemingway said he re-wrote the ending of this iconic novel 39 times, but I guess he underestimated. I love this story. Not, A Farewell to Arms, which I can’t remember ever reading. And not this story from a publishing point-of-view, because what is this really except the book version of re-packaging? The same as Nabisco making Oreo’s smaller or filling them with peanut butter or mint, because, well, because how could we possibly resist? I love this

A writer, an editor and a reader walk into an Establishment Pub[lishing] House. The affronted publisher asks, “What’s the story here?” The writer: “I’d like people to read what I’ve written.” The editor: “I’d like to edit fresh, original stories by real people rather than celebrities.” The reader: “I’d like to read the best fiction rather than what will sell whether it’s good or not.” The publisher: “Sorry, you’re not my type.” ***laughter***applause*** Thank you. Thank