Hypervigilance is bullshit.
Oi. Maybe it’s the holiday season, and maybe it’s who-knows-what, but I am writing just to complain about PTSD and the fact that apparently my brain is in...
Self-care rather than self-discipline
Hello friends, and happy holiday season. I’m coming to you from a very cozy little Airbnb above a cactus shop (!) in Minneapolis, and if I weren’t taking a...
New York Public Library 2019 Best Books list!
Not to bury the lede: it includes Ancestral Night. This is a career first for me, and I’m thrilled. In other White Space news, I’ve got confirmation from Joe...
Obligatory eligibility post thing, also some reviews
Hey, folks! It’s time for that obligatory end of year post where I tell you what I published this year, in the hopes that if you read it and like it you...
Coping with success
It isn’t always easy. Good things (and the demands and attention they bring) can be as anxiety-producing as failures. Especially for those of us with...
I come to you with new stories
Some more stories one could read online, were one so moved! “Perfect Gun,” a reprint currently available at Clarkesworld. It’s about a boy and his war...
A Sunday afternoon ramble
Howdy, folks! So here I am trying to put my life and routine back together after Worldcon; 2 months of being sick with flu and bronchitis and asthma; and...
Things are on sale!
Hey, folks! I’ve been a bit remiss in newslettering for a bit, and I apologize: I had the flu, and it turned into bronchitis, and TMI but I’m pretty sure...
Subject position. Object position.
Stories are like sentences: when they are about us, we can be the subject of them, or the object of them. And it presents a very different experience to...
Thank you, Lt. Col Petrov.
Today is Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov Saves The World Day, one of my personal holidays. On this day in 1983, Lieutenant Colonel Petrov, duty officer at a...
You're doing it wrong
and that's okay.
Line of direction, a brief tutorial
I’m working on a novella currently, and I just fixed a bit of awkwardness that I realized was a useful primer on what we mean when we say, “Line of...
Don't quit your day job, and other one-size-fits-all advice
As I write this, the publishosphere internets are blowing up about a Medium article by an author who got fairly fantastic advances on her first two deals,...
Check, please.
There are a couple of ways that failing to acknowledge and own our social power and choose to use it mindfully can get us into trouble—accidentally and on...
Working on multiple projects at once
Writer? Juggler? Email answerer? It's hard to know for sure what to put on your Form 1040. Ah, it’s a special kind of joy in the life of a professional...
Library Visit!
I’ll be in beautiful Marion, MA, at the Marion Arts Center at 6 pm on Thursday with the Elizabeth Taber Library crew to hang out, answer questions, and meet...
I know it's weird, but self-punishment doesn't actually lead to growth.
So it turns out that coffee and tea probably don’t dehydrate you; that in reasonable quantities they’re not bad for you unless you’re sensitive to caffeine;...
How not to be a dick to everybody
Make friends and avoid being that person of whom that everybody in the industry says, "Oh, them."
Erase, Erase, Erase
Or, I have a new novelette out today.
I spent a whole goddamn week with Billy Joel stuck in my head.
I blame Aer Lingus. You see, my noise cancelling headphones work better if there’s some other sound coming through them, so I was listening to music on my...
So you have/have not been nominated for an award.
Welcome to the emotional roller coaster. I’m not going to lie to you: for any professional writer, award season is kind of hell on the fingernails. Either...
I left my superpower in my other pants.
Don't be ridiculous. You're not wearing any pants.
Don't kill your darlings.
Not until you figure out what "Kill your darlings" really means.
I'll be at Worldcon this weekend!
It's in Ireland, you know....
Setting goals
What you can control, and what you will make yourself ill trying to control
How do I know when I've outgrown my crit group?
To crit quit or not to crit quit.
Mystery persons
Some random thoughts on my favorite kinds of plot.
I'll be at Silver Unicorn Books in Acton MA tonight, appearing with Cadwell Turnbull.
Does what it says on the box.
What I learned from reading slush
about how to get past a slush reader.
Where to find me and what I have been up to!
...reticulating splines...
How to become an award-winning writer in 7 steps.
It's simple. But that doesn't mean it's easy. Okay, it isn't simple either.
Peach custard for a variety of dietary needs...
I made a dessert last weekend that I’m pretty proud of. It didn’t entirely come out perfectly but it was delicious and easy, so I am willing to forgive it a...
Leveling
How to get better, and how to know when you're backsliding.
Happy Freedom From Creative Guilt Day!
You're not doing it wrong.
They taught me not to fail
They didn't teach me to succeed.
Surviving as a freelancer without starving to death
I hear gutters are very comfortable. But couches are more comfortable still.
Re-enter the Promethean Age
Hey folks, guess what?! New UK ebook editions of BLOOD AND IRON and WHISKEY AND WATER are available now!
Focus
It's not just for cameras anymore.
AMA
Hey, subscribers!
Breaking Bad... habits.
The problem with working by yourself, for yourself, all alone with yourself—and in a job that amounts to siphoning off measured and calibrated doses of your...
If you enjoyed Ancestral Night, here's a peek at the protagonist of Machine.
Out next year!
You are allowed to be successful
and other stories from the mines of impostor syndrome.
Jealousy part two: what if it isn't a friend?
Sometimes awful people get to be pretty successful...
Really most sincerely tired.
4th Street Fantasy is done for another year, and—as is usual for a convention I help run—in the immediate aftermath, I am so tired I can about feel my brain...
Short fiction update
There are some Bears loose in the woods....
Line of direction
Sequence and order; time and stress. These things are very important.
Not only are you allowed to say no: sometimes you just have to.
But first, look for reasons to say yes.
Holding out for a hero
Don't waste yourself on subpar opportunities.
The Red-Stained Wings is loose in the world.
*ARE* loose in the world? Oh well, it's the copyeditor's problem now.
Jealousy.
What to do when your friends are more successful than you are, or maybe just funnier and better looking.