Empressive!

Spoilers for Heavy Ice below, in case you haven’t read it:

Non-binary genders in the real world and elsewhere

Foz Meadows of Shattersnipe.com has compiled An A-Z Of Non-Binary Genders. Real-world only and non-insulting, so do not go over there and suggest epicon or scrat. When I was first planning Requite, it became obvious that there would be people there who didn’t do the gender binary thing. As I suppose most writers do, I’d […]

House hunting, review, and thoughts on new trends in publishing

Well, I’m back from looking for a new house, and we now at least have somewhere to rent while we look for somewhere more permanent to house two people, one cat (hopefully rising to more than one cat when we’re properly settled), a huge number of books and fewer old computers than we owned last […]

Note to future self

Dear future self: Since we have a book coming out soon, I’m writing to remind you that reading discussion of your books that you find around the web has a tendency to discombobulate you. It may feel as if people are demanding things from you that you find outside your range of competence, not what […]

His Hell-Bound Hedgehog

Today while making a somewhat doomed attempt to tidy the house I noticed that the general confusion of soft toys in my bedroom had produced a tableau in which Cerberus, Guardian of the Underworld, appeared to be carrying off a small grey-furred hedgehog. And then it occurred to me that someone out there has probably […]

Je Ne Regrette Rien

I do not regret a single damn moment of the time I’ve spent self-publishing. I don’t regret the time I was trying to turn The Maker’s Mask into something that Smashwords’ Meatgrinder software would work with, which involved me nuking the thing back to plain text, sitting there for an afternoon with the paperback open […]

Things I Already Know People Won’t Like About Heavy Ice

My characters aren’t speaking English and yet they sometimes make puns or mishearings that rely on English to work. I realise that a lot of people find this annoying, and all I can do is follow in the hallowed footsteps of Tolkien and say think of it as a free translation from the original. Requite […]

Point of View

So, today I’m thinking about point of view. I’ve noticed that my natural inclination when beginning books is to start off writing in omniscient POV and then drop into third person when the person whose viewpoint the first scene is in shows up. I did it with Heavy Ice, and I’ve found myself doing it […]

First Contact

So, Heavy Ice is lying fallow until I’ve got enough perspective to see the shape of it and turn it into a second draft, and I’m busy with research for the new thing. Well, I say ‘research’ – for every hour of’Exactly what shape was this particular building, and where can I find an etching […]

Heavy Ice is finished in first draft!

I am listening to James’ ‘Sit Down’ which was the song that was playing when I finished my very first novel (the terrible book about roleplayers which will never see the light of day) and which I’ve played for every first draft I’ve finished since. This book. This infuriating book. I can’t tell you how […]