Aspiring fiction writers and Creative Writing instructors share a lot of really bad advice with each other, but of all these, “Write What You Know” is probably the worst, or at least the most misunderstood. I hold this one piece of advice and everyone who shares it personally responsible for all those whiny novels about angry middle-aged housewives trying to work up the courage to file for divorce, those excruciating short stories about the terrible...
Monday, June 29, 2020
Saturday, June 27, 2020
Opinion: Waiting for Thermidor • by Bruce Bethke
I am a science fiction writer. I get paid to think about the future. I do it a lot, have been doing it for decades, and have given a lot of thought to exactly how I do it.
Consequently, here’s a writing tip for you. If you want to
write formulaic, derivative, science fiction-flavored prose product (which I
will admit, can be quite lucrative), you should read and watch nothing but
other people’s science fiction. Do this for years, without fail,...
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
From the archives...
Found while continuing the archaeological dig in my office, looking for something else: the complete manuscript for Will Write For Food: Twenty Years of Short Stories by Bruce Bethke. The book was to be a (nearly) complete collection of the short stories I saw published in various magazines between 1980 and 2000, but then the publisher sobered up and canceled the project.
Twelve-plus...
Monday, June 22, 2020
Opinion: The Author Is Not The Work • by Eric Dontigney
So, for anyone who has been disconnected from all news and social media for the last week or two, the once-beloved J.K. Rowling has come under intense fire for anti-trans statements. Since a cis-gendered white guy is not the best person to discuss the nuances of that firestorm, I’ll leave the analysis to the better equipped. The other thing Rowling’s comments have triggered...
Saturday, June 20, 2020
From the archives...
Found
while doing an archaeological dig through the mess in my office, looking for a particular something I wanted to use in a chapbook project. I’d completely forgotten the conversation I had
with Patrick Lucien Price that led to his writing this intro for my story, but
it seems fairly trenchant today. This story was written in September of
1986, sold to Amazing in December...
Book Review: The Fugitive Heir
When you’re an author, nothing cheers you up like reading a glowing review of a book you wrote. When you’re a publisher, the pleasure of seeing a positive review of a book you published is almost as good, as it means someone out there has validated your opinion of the author and the work. After all, I wouldn’t publish novels and stories if I didn’t like reading them, would...
Friday, June 19, 2020
Status Update: 19 June 2020
Obviously. things here at Rampant Loon Press are not going quite as planned. Ironic to note that I wrote such an optimistic post about our June book release schedule on May 23rd, just two days before...
The world has changed. Were he alive now, Heinlein might have declared this to be the beginning of the Crazy Years. As I watched the real-time live coverage...