I’m at 4th Street Fantasy Convention this weekend. In a panel last night, there was a discussion about suspension of disbelief. One technique mentioned (by Scott Lynch) was “lampshading,” in which the author, knowing that they’re taking extreme liberties with the laws of physics, or medicine, or whatever, has a character point out the discrepancy …
Tag: writing
Jul 20
Review: Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire My rating: 4 of 5 stars My wife and I enjoyed this book enough to pick up the sequel. The snappy dialogue and narration of the independent-minded heroine is a big plus here. The setting is creative. The plot is well-formed. On the negative side, I thought there were too …
Dec 26
The Next Big Thing Blog Hop
The elegant and talented Dana M. Baird has tagged me to participate in a sort of chain letter of writers talking about their work in progress. Like all writers, I welcome any excuse to do this, though I wouldn’t dream of doing so uninvited. So, here are my answers to the standard set of questions. …
Nov 16
Fate of the Apostrophe
“Somewhere in Kansas” asks: What’s the deal with apostrophe’s? The apostrophe has become a point of contention between those who believe that punctuation marks should have some meaning and dammit I’m going to make you use them correctly, and those who feel that we should acknowledge reality. It looks like the latter camp is slowly …
Nov 20
MFAs and Literary Conventions
Why is it that… the most dreadful stories submitted to Stupefying Stories, come from people [with an] MFA in creative writing?
Sep 28
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Terry Faust?
How do you know Mr. Faust? … The town council would appreciate all information pertaining to Mr. Faust for a pending frivolous libel suit. [MORE]