Tag Archives: a little bit ranty

Nov
7

How to Hijack a Genre

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One of the panels I went to at WFC this past week was about Urban Fantasy – and specifically what sort of writing really makes up a UF story. (Charles de Lint, Tanya Huff, David G. Hartwell and Tim Powers were the panelists) There were some rather fascinating arguments being made as far as what was historical fantasy vs contemporary fantasy vs urban fantasy – and really, I think what it all comes down to is how the publishers choose to market the books more than anything else. But even so, you could see there was a definite line drawn in the sand between the “old school” UF authors and the fact that they really didn’t want to be associated with what’s being marketed as UF today. Even the description of the panel – The North American lineage of Urban Fantasy has been traced from Unknown Worlds, and the term was clearly… Read more
Aug
1

Author Q & A: Things You Should Know. And Maybe Shouldn’t Ask.

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Sometimes being a published author is a bit like being an animal in a zoo, particularly when it comes to family and friends. And I get that. There’s a certain mystique to being published  – one that’s being eroded on a daily basis, but for people who aren’t in the book industry in some fashion, it seems more mysterious as it is. But it also leads to questions and assumptions that are sometimes difficult to answer. Moreso because a lot of people don’t really want the whole truth. They want to hear about how there’s some magical formula that leads to instant success. Anyway, here’s a few I’ve run into – and I’m sure many of you have too. 1) How did you get published? On the surface – this should be easy to answer. I wrote a book and then I: a) self-pubbed b) queried/pitched to an agent/editor c) sacrificed 10… Read more