When it comes to the living dead, I’m strictly vanilla. I want my zombies slow, shambling, mindless and prolific. I have no time for zombies that run, or speak, or suffer from a virus and aren’t really zombies. So I began reading Amelia Beamer’s The Loving Dead with a bit of trepidation, since her zombies are not only virus-spawned (and … Read More
Helsinki Homicide: ice cold crime without "girl" in the title
Scandanavian thrillers are all the rage right now thanks to Steig Larsson, but I’ve been a fan of this sub-genre since Peter Hoeg’s novel Smilla’s Sense of Snow and the original Norwegian version of the film Insomnia. Larsson’s Millenium trilogy may be the Hunger Games of its moment, but recently I discovered another Scandanavian author, from Finland, whose crime novels … Read More
Help! I need a catch phrase!
One of the most fun parts of being an author is signing books for readers, but I often find myself stuck for clever wording. Sure, “best wishes” and “thanks for reading” are acceptable fall-backs, but I want something unique and fun. George Romero, for example, signs everything, “Stay Scared!” My problem is I write both horror and fantasy, so I … Read More
If it’d been an Ellison, it woulda bit me
There’s an old bit of wisdom that says, roughly paraphrased, if you pick up a snake and it bites you, it’s not the snake’s fault. My wife is an avid science fiction reader, but she’s never been to an SF convention. When her favorite SF author Harlan Ellison was announced as the guest of honor for local convention MadCon, she … Read More
"The process is its own reward" *
“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” –W. Edwards Deming I get asked about my writing process a fair bit, so I thought I’d share an example of how I work, from initial draft to final revision. I’m not making any claims that this is the only way, or even … Read More
Working titles (and titles that don’t. Work, that is.)
My most recent novel, The Girls with Games of Blood, was the first one to hit shelves with my title on it. I’m not complaining, mind you. Titles are funny things, and they have to be balanced between appropriateness, marketability and simple comprehension. But I thought I’d describe the titling process as I’ve experienced it, since I’ve just settled on … Read More
I walked into a bar…and he saw the end
Recently I read a novel that annoyed me no end with its capricious disregard of its own genre rules. And I worry that in it, I saw the end of the current boom of fantasy/paranormal novels crossed with the hardboiled detective form, which depresses me because hey, I write that kind of book. The novel (unidentified here because it’s symptomatic … Read More
The profit motive (or, the prophet motive)
Recently on my Facebook/Twitter feed I posted a bit of Roger Ebert’s review of the new Julia Roberts movie, Eat Pray Love: “[To like the movie] I guess you have to belong to the narcissistic subculture of Woo-Woo.” I quoted it because I found it funny, and should make clear right now that I have neither read nor seen the book/movie … Read More
"The Somber Enemy"
Thanks to Rita Mae Reese for suggesting this blog post. One side-effect of being a full-time writer is that I’m also the stay-at-home parent for my two sons, ages 5 and 2. They impinge on every single moment of my day, especially the younger one, since he’s underfoot almost constantly. My wife works in an office 45 minutes away and … Read More
It was the best of lines, it was the worst of lines
Is there a more famous opening line in all literature than, “Call me Ishmael”? It introduces a mystery (the narrator doesn’t say, “My name is Ishmael,” he says you can call him that), it sets up the tone, and it tells us that the narrator has a wry, dry wit. It’s brilliant. So brilliant that even people who’ve never read … Read More