August 31, 2006

Cover Letters

What not to do in a cover letter, compared to picking up a woman in a bar.

* Filed by scriniary at 8:25 pm under Writing
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August 27, 2006

Writing Links

[info]raleva31 on writing as an inborn talent vs a practiced craft. It begins

Another little controversial thing I hear once in a while is this idea that good writers are just born that way: They have this different, special way of looking at the world that the rest of us can’t even hope to see unless we see it through their eyes. They have this very special “gift” with words and thoughts.

I am going to disagree with that.

I agree with her. There is such a thing as talent, but it’s not going to do a lazy writer any good. And the “writers are special” thing doesn’t appeal to me, especially when self-proclaimed writers use it to set themselves above other people and then fail to actually write.

On a related note, the AP begins an article on Nora Roberts with Endless reserves of imagination aren’t all it takes to write 165 novels. It also requires the discipline of a drill sergeant.

* Filed by scriniary at 7:40 am under Writing
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August 20, 2006

A Note on the Lack of Paragraphs

For some reason, when I edit posts imported from LiveJournal, WordPress kills all the paragraphing and I can’t put it back in.

* Filed by scriniary at 3:03 pm under Uncategorized
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Locus Sales Information

Melinda Goodin has compiled the sales information from Locus into a spreadsheet. Useful if you want to check which authors sold what to which editor via which agent etc.

* Filed by scriniary at 7:54 am under Writing
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August 13, 2006

Writing Links

Recent readings:

M.J. Rose questions whether blogs are an effective promotional technique.

Rachel Vater has been discussing the perils of writing in more than one genre, here and here.

* Filed by scriniary at 6:22 am under Writing
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August 12, 2006

Pork Chops with Syrup

Ok, it’s really Pork Chops with Cherry Preserves Sauce (Cooking Light, Aug. 2006). But I should have read the recipe more closely before I decided to make it, as the sauce is just cherry preserves and a tiny bit of vinegar. Waaaaaaaaaay too sweet.

Next time I’ll stick with the pork-and-plums recipe I love so much from a previous issue. That fruit sauce is dried plums+wine+chicken broth. Much less sweet.

And I thought I was lucking out since cherry preserves were on sale.

* Filed by scriniary at 4:46 pm under Food
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Peach Tapioca

Peach Tapioca
1 15 oz can peaches, undrained

enough soy milk to make 1 c of liquid

~2 TBSP quick tapioca

cinnamon and brown sugar to taste

Mix everything in a saucepan and let it sit for several minutes. Bring to a boil, stirring occassionally. Turn off heat and let sit for ~20 minutes.

* Filed by scriniary at 9:48 am under Food
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August 2, 2006

Vellum, Hal Duncan (9)

Hal Duncan’s Vellum is an awesome book.

I finished it a few weeks ago, but was holding off on the review until I could say something more profound. I have since given up thinking of something to say. Go read what other people said instead.

For the five of you who haven’t heard of it, Vellum involves a bunch of characters who are also other characters, either immortal or reincarnated or metaphorical or all of the above. It jumps around from character to character, taking place in 2017 and World War I and the far future and the ancient mideast and other times and places, some of which are our Earth and others of which aren’t. Roughly, it involves people who are trying not to take sides in a war among angels.

Despite this, it is not confusing. It’s mysterious, in an all this neat stuff is related, let’s keep reading to find out how way, but not in an I have no idea what’s going on help way. And it’s really hard to set down.

(I’m sure though that if I knew more mythology and history, I’d see more parallels and general nifty stuff. But even being relatively ignorant was no hindrance.)

Also, Duncan’s prose rocks.

(Here is an essay he wrote about style.)

(Here are two passages from the book.)

I have only two complaints: First, that there are three fonts and two of them were hard to tell apart. Since there didn’t seem to be a need for three fonts, this wasn’t a big issue. Second, that the book stops, rather than ending, and the rest of it (Ink) doesn’t come out until 2007.

I feel obligated to say something about hype. Apparently there was a lot. I was oblivious, although I put this book on my to-read list after hearing someone on some panel at some convention last year say good things about it. (Most likely World Fantasy.) By the time I found the book in the store and decided to buy it, I’d forgotten who said what, and decided to buy based on the usual flap-pageone-pagerandom trinity.

* Filed by scriniary at 11:07 pm under Books
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