This middle grade sci-fi story was recommended to me by a friend interning at Bloomsbury around the time it was published. Knowing my bent for science fiction, he sent the recommendation my way. It took me a while to get to it, partly because I was reading a stack of young adult books at the […]
I know a lot of writers manage to move back and forth between hard sci-fi and fantasy without any trouble, and Emma Newman is definitely one of them. My hat is off to authors who understand the nuances of the different genres and manage to create engaging characters and develop engaging worlds whatever the genre […]
Lately I’ve been reading a lot of draft manuscripts, including a couple of my own, and for some reason I started thinking about the use of “time” in story structure. It may be a function of what was on my desk this week, or something deeper and more profound, but as writers we don’t seem […]
Writers often complain about how it’s impossible to organize our writing time because we’re always distracted by other things. Very often those other things revolve around computer screens, smartphones, iPads etc. We know we *can* turn off the computer (or at least the Internet connection), but we don’t *want* to. We can even download software that […]
Usually I review young adult and middle grade speculative fiction books here, but if I find a craft or craft-related book that I think is really worthwhile, I’ll add it to the mix. That was definitely the case with Kendra Levin’s The Hero is You (2016). It’s not a traditional craft book, but rather a […]
I’ve often received two seemingly contradictory pieces of advice as a writer when I face a problematic section of a manuscript and feel like I can’t go on. So I thought, what better way to try and tease them apart than to blog about it? Think about those days when you absolutely can’t write another […]
It won’t be news to many writers that one of the best ways of creating narrative tension on the page is to give a character a powerful desire and then throw obstacles in her way. The character’s ability to overcome obstacles and move forward is what creates the tension that will make the reader keep […]
Intrigued by recent advertisements, I wandered over to the library to check out a copy of The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan. All I knew was that it had something to do with fairy-tales and boasted a foreword by Neil Gaiman. I’m also highly embarrassed to admit I haven’t read (if that’s the correct word […]
I’m delighted to be sharing a recent interview with YA writer extraordinaire, Mindy McGinnis, about her new novel, THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES. She’s one of the most eclectic YA writers out there, moving between genres so fast it could make your head spin – and mastering all of them (and she also loves cats!) […]
Why am I only discovering this book – and this author – now? Charles Yu has been around for a while and won the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award for his short story collection, Third Class Superhero some years ago. This book – How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe – […]
