Writing Prompt: Remembering

This weekend marks Memorial Day in the United States, a day to remember the men and women who fought and died in the armed forces. If your story is set in a different world, do they have a similar custom? How do they remember those who died for their land? If it's set in our world (or some near variant thereof), does Memorial Day mean anything for your characters besides an excuse to go shopping or the day they can start wearing white again?

gathering the links, May 29

Enjoy!

Jon Gibbs, an Englishman in New Jersey:
Interesting posts about writing – w/e May 28 2010
Rejection, fan fiction, e-books, and piracy.

Margaret McGaffey Fisk:
Friday's Interesting Links
Posted while she's off at BayCon: life, science, publishing, writing.

SFSignal:
SF Tidbits for 5/28/10
SF Tidbits for 5/27/10
SF Tidbits for 5/26/10
SF Tidbits for 5/25/10
SF Tidbits for 5/24/10
The usual wonderful assortment of interviews, news, and articles.

gathering the links, May 21

Trying to get back into regular posting.

Jon Gibbs, an Englishman in New Jersey:
Interesting posts about writing – w/e May 21 2010
A market list, time management, why some people stop reading, and more.

Margaret McGaffey Fisk:
Friday's Interesting Links
Submissions, rejections, and whether you can make a living at writing.

SFSignal:
SF Tidbits for 5/21/10
SF Tidbits for 5/20/10
SF Tidbits for 5/19/10
SF Tidbits for 5/18/10
SF Tidbits for 5/17/10
The usual wonderful assortment of interviews, news, and articles.

Several hours' worth of time could be spent if you follow all these links! Don't forget to balance browsing with actual writing.

rainy day reading

Everyone knows there's a lot of information on the Web about writing -- both craft and business. Lately (well, okay, starting at the end of last year -- I can be slow to post), I've noticed that there are a few different books being blogged that are well worth following.

Dean Wesley Smith: Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing --- DWS is a lot of the inspiration for me to actually get moving on my submissions this year. If I hadn't been reading his blog (including his set of posts on motivations at the end of last year*), I probably wouldn't have submitted the two books I have this year.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Freelancer's Survival Guide --- Very long (almost 60 entries right now), covering everything from negotiating to networks to vacations.

Tobias Buckell: It's All Just a Draft --- Basics, short stories, workshops . . . each installment available as a downloadable RTF.

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Not a book, but a series of posts that might be worth your time to look at are Stroppy Writer's looks at a publishing contract (Anne Rooney, in the U.K.). Currently, a dozen posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Note that not all of these posts have the tag "publishing contract" on them, so you can't just click the tag to get the entire group.

An older set of posts on reading a contract were posted back in 2004 by Michelle Sagara West. I found them well worth reading at the time. Although I haven't gone back to them recently, I can't imagine that that has changed.

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So, there you are. Lots of reading for a rainy day. Have fun!


* Motivation posts: 1 (motivation and year end goals), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (fear), and 10 (extra help). The early posts talk a lot about Heinlein's rules and how DWS has implemented them. Later, he gets into five-year plans and how to set your goals based on your dreams.

Writing Prompt: Super, Super

There are many stories of changes that bring powers to the world -- comets, genetic shifts, artifacts, magic. One day, people wake up and everything has changed.

Suppose that in your world, something happened to create people who could do things beyond the merely human -- but only those who had never dreamed of such a thing happening, who had never wished to be superheroes or gods or genetic supermen, benefited. What do your characters do?

(Sorry about the lack of attention lately. Trying to get back to the blog again.)