Adapt, improvise, overcome. And some strategies for coping with that cabinet full of shelf-stable STUFF.
Hey, folks, I’ve been working on the page proofs for Machine, which are now a week late due to apocalypse delay, and (sadly) cancelling my guest of honor...
The coming singularity is here.
Hey, folks, It’s been a week or two, hasn’t it? It seems like over the past seven days, everybody who hadn’t already realized that a Major Problem was...
Can't get away from the book sales and cover reveals.
Hello, folks, First up, The US cover for Machine has been revealed, and it’s a doozy! The full post is up over at The Book Smugglers (a fantastic site) with...
Food is love in a time of coronavirus, part two.
Hi, friends. First things first, apparently my novel Dust (Jacob’s Ladder #1, first book in a series that takes place several hundred years before Ancestral...
Food is love
Hey, folks. This is not going to be the suddenly-obligatory How To Work From Home opinion piece, because I’ve never personally found working from home...
Before apocalypse, chop wood, carry water...
During apocalypse, cover art still shows up. As a brief distraction from building a fortress out of ramen noodles, I offer the UK cover art for MACHINE,...
It never rains but it pours manuscripts.
Hey, folks! Everything is going on here and not much of it is “news,” I’m afraid. Spring is arriving ahead of schedule and the cats are thrilled by the...
What a long strange month it's been.
Hey, folks. I have no excuse for not having written in so long, I’m afraid, other than being overwhelmed and exhausted. Mid-life brain chemistry changes are...
The Best of Elizabeth Bear is out today!
Out today! Don’t delay!
No Sleep Til Brookline
Hello, friends! A brief note to let you know what’s going on! First, a public appearance: I’ll be at the Brookline Booksmith in Brookline MA on Friday at 7...
Memoirs of a Space Traveler
MIT Press asked me to write a foreword for this new edition of Memoirs of a Space Traveler, by Stanislaw Lem, and I was very pleased indeed to do...
Received wisdom and shibboleths.
This post is brought to you by the fact that, this morning (which will be, oh, about a week ago by the time this newsletter goes out), I crouched down to...
The Best of UNCANNY is out now!
Does what it says on the tin and you can read all about it right here.
If I'm not shitposting on twitter all day, do I actually exist?
Hello, friends! Today I want to talk about one something I struggle with as a freelance writer, as a person who works alone on the sofa with a cat or two for...
Fuck multitasking
Hello, friends! It’s natural, as the year winds down, to find one’s self taking stock and contemplating changes in habit for the new year. Of course the...
Persistence and vision.
Staying in the game until you spot your opportunity.
Lyrical writing requires self-discipline
Hello folks, and thank each of you for being one of the select few who are subscribing to and sustaining this newsletter. So when I was breaking in to...
Relevance without trendfucking
a manifesto
UK (and Europe?) Deal of the Day!
Hey, folks. Well, I’ve been traveling, and having more fun while traveling than intended, as I have a terrible head cold and also we got to spend an extra...
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.