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Random
Trivia
The
endangered Komodo
dragons are the world's heaviest lizards and
grow up to 10 feet long. Their
favorite food is carrion, and their noses
are so keen they can detect the delicious
scent of rotting flesh up to
5 miles away. |
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ARTICLES AND
NONFICTION
When I'm not writing, sometimes I write about writing.
The rest of the time I wish I was
writing! If you like to read nonfiction
articles about writing instead of, you know, writing, here are my contributions
to your bad habit. If you'd like to republish one of these in your
newsletter or other venue, please
contact me!
Note: as of June 2011, I am in the
slow, sluggardly process
of republishing articles, since
most of my links are dead due to website
redesigns, dead websites, etc. If you want
to read an article that isn't available yet,
please let me know.
 By My
Snarky Sister:
-
Snarky Sister &
Snarkives, 2004-2006. At one
point, I had conned my sister into writing
slice of life "essays" for my site. She is
hilarious. I am sad that she stopped.
As Myself:
-
Gnome Hunting Essay,
2008. Why you shouldn't touch that
garden gnome that randomly shows up on your
porch at night.
(Note: The rest of the articles originally appeared in the SFR Newsletter
(now OOP) or
the MCRW Newsletter. Many have been reprinted in other places,
particularly the ones I have done for the MCRW Newsletter. Links within the
articles may be defunct, as they were written
when the internet was young--maybe
a toddler?)
-
100 a Day Keeps Writer's
Block Away, 2003. A
useful inspirational club for forcing
yourself to meet writing goals.
-
2003 SFR Holiday
Gift Guide, 2003. What to buy your SFR loving friends in 2003.
-
An Authorized Website,
2002. Dated links. Some tips for creating a website as an author,
including style tips.
-
Avoid Being a Turkey with
the Turkey City Lexicon, 2003. An overview of how romance authors can
put the infamous Turkey City Lexicon to great use.
-
SFR Authors Who Straddle Publishers, 2003. Small versus large press,
benefits and downsides.
-
By Hook or Crook,
2004. Opening hooks and sentences of novels--my take.
-
Cross Stars,
2001. Using astrology to create character matches and mismatches.
-
A Day in the Life of an
Author With Child, X2, 2006. My version of the challenges of being a
Mom writer.
-
Dead as a Doornail: The
Ease of a Good Cliché, 2001. How cliches aren't always evil and why they
exist.
-
Fairy Tales as Story
Outlines, 2001. Reposted here in 2011. Using a fairy tale as the basis for a romance novel.
-
Futurehunk!,
2002. What kinds of heroes show up in science fiction romances?
-
Harry Who?, 2000.
What an SFR novelist can learn from children's science fiction and fantasy
literature, plus a reading list.
-
How Babies are Like
Aliens, 2002. Bet you didn't know...
-
How to be Loved by
Contest Judges, 2001. An article inspired by my continuing run-ins with the
RWA contest circuit.
-
It's All About the
Women: Silhouette Bombshell Line Review, 2004. Short reviews of the first 8
Sil. Bombshell novels.
-
Me and Bobby McForm
Rejection, 2006. An author's quest to 'get a clue' about the
submission process.
- Review:
Query
Letter Critique with Kate Duffy, 2005 Conf. Workshop, 2005. A brief
review of the workshop from the conference tape.
- Review:
RWA Idol, 2005
Conf. Workshop, 2006. A brief review of the workshop from the
conference tape.
-
The Scary Thing,
2006. Different reasons authors procrastinate when they should be writing.
-
SF Poetry, 2000.
Science fiction poetry genesis, markets, and reading list.
-
SFR Shorts, 2000.
Science fiction romance short fiction plus markets and anthologies.
-
Snatch and the Romance Writer,
2003. Taking advantage of story inspiration whenever it hits you.
-
Top Eleven Ways Writing
is Like Feeding a Baby Cereal, 2002. This was when my kid was small.
-
Top Ten Ways Babies
Are Like Vampires, 2002. This was also when my kids was small.
-
The Tricky Art
of Backstory, 2003. How to work information into a novel without dumping it
on a reader.
-
Unsticking What's Stuck:
Head Laxatives for the Blocked Writer, 2002. Writer's block solutions.
-
Vampires: A
Field Guide, 2002. Giant "quiz" to find out what kind of vampire is about to
bite you based on literary examples.
-
Web Serials...Your
Soaps Online, 2000. Dated links. Serial fiction online, much of it free,
with an emphasis in SFR fiction.
- Review:
What Editors
Don't Want to See, 2005 Conf. Workshop, 2005. A brief review of the
workshop from the conference tape. Okay, maybe not so brief. This is
me we're talking about.
-
Worldbuild That
Romance, 2002. Advice to SFR writers from SFR reviewers, who read a lot.
As The
Grammar Wench:
-
And Then? And Then?,
2004, 2011. Is "then" a coordinating conjunction or what?
-
The Grammar Wench's
Appositively Commas, 2003, 2011. The wench explains how to punctuate appositives. More people than you think don't know how.
-
The Grammar Wench's
Contest Judge Series: The Basics, 2006, 2011. Since the Wench behaves
as if she's an authority on judging RWA contests, here are her thoughts on the
basic skills a contest judge needs.
-
The Grammar Wench's
Contest Judge Series: The Difficult Manuscript, 2006,
2011. What to
say and how not to say it when the manuscript you're judging pains you like my
examples above.
-
The Grammar Wench's
Contest Rant, 2001, 2011. The first appearance of the wench, inspired by my first
foray into the RWA Contest circuit. It wasn't pretty.
-
The Grammar Wench's
Dialogue Demo, 2003, 2011. In particular, how to punctuate dialogue.
-
The Grammar Wench's
Judging Tips, 2004,
2011. Things you can do so your wenchliness doesn't shine
through as you judge contests.
-
The Grammar
Wench's Punctuating Compound Predicates, 2003, 2011. An article a lot of you need
to take to heart! Nyaa!
-
The Grammar
Wench's Why Present Participial Phrases are Evil, 2003,
2011. They aren't, really,
but they sure get overused.
-
Grammy, What's a Run-on?,
2004, 2011. Ever seen 'run-on' casually marked in your margin? Well, what is a
run-on sentence, really?
As The Grammar Wench's Cousin Maybelle:
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