articles on writing
Interviewed by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel Welcome to the multi-tasking world of author and artist Maya Bohnhoff. Whether writing, composing, painting or any other corner of creative life, Maya has laid claim to a section of more than one artistic community. Q.) Looking on your website, it seems that your musical work with your husband, musician …
One of the hardest things for some writers to learn is what goes into building a world in enough detail to engage the reader’s willing suspension of disbelief. This is especially important when writing about places that no one alive has actually visited either because they’re obscured by the mists of time or invented. What …
We’re social creatures, and one of the ways we express that is by eating together. But in addition to fostering interpersonal bonds, meals can be an opportunity for display — even to the point of stomach-turning excess.
Interviewer’s Note: Laura Gayle is the pen name for Shannon Page and Karen G. Berry SHERWOOD: One of the pleasures of this series is the setting. The author(s) do such an excellent job of evoking the different pace of life in northwest island living, as Cam, our main character in this series, discovers how the …
Cafe Reads: The Chameleon Chronicles, interview with Laura Gayle by Sherwood Smith Read More »
Originally posted on February 3, 2017 by Ursula Le Guin with permission from the poet; post edited and updated by Jill Zeller. My friend Deborah Miranda sent me this poem by her friend Anita Endrezze, which says a lot of the things that have been struggling in me to get said lately, and makes me …
Not far from where I sit — maybe forty feet or so, as the termite bores — I have a store of unimaginable wealth. It’s called my kitchen spice cabinet.
A review of Ursula K. Le Guin‘s No Time to Spare, a collection of her blog posts, Originally published September 8, 2017 “In 2010, at the age of 81, the acclaimed novelist Ursula K. Le Guin started a blog. Blogs never seemed a likely destination for the writer, who by then had a long career …
What Happens When a Science Fiction Genius Starts Blogging? Read More »
As regular readers of my articles know, I have a bit of an issue with the way that people—especially highly public and influential people—use and abuse language. Some do this intentionally to manipulate their audience; others do it unintentionally out of an urge to vent emotions they don’t know what to do with. In this …
While we’re confined by the pandemic, how about another virtual trip with me? Let me take you back in time and place to inspiration for my novel ISLANDS. A lot of “life” happened this week, so today I’ll take you on a quickie trip to the Caribbean, where my days as a scuba divemaster inspired my …
The Rambling Writer Flashback: Inspiration for ISLANDS Read More »
When the covid pandemic sent us all into lockdown, I, like many people, became extremely leery of leaving the house. In fact, for a while there the only reason I walked past my front door was to visit the grocery store, which I did as infrequently as I could get away with. I was very …
We’ve been talking about gangs in the context of groups of thieves, but the truth is that gangs can form for a lot of reasons.
Most people know what a ’meme’ is. The dictionary definition is: “an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.” The dictionary adds that it might be “a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied …
Given that the general focus of the New Worlds Patreon is worldbuilding for speculative fiction, I think we need to take a moment to look directly at a beloved trope found in a certain type of fantasy: the thieves’ guild. In its full form, the thieves’ guild is a remarkably well-organized institution — practically an …
