There’s nothing more satisfying than working with a wonderful author. S. Usher Evans has been a friend of Backlit Web longer than I can remember, twitter time, but now she has a new book! Let’s hear the news from Ms. Evans herself: Introducing the brand-spankin’ new cover for The Island, made by Anita over at Race-Point.com. About the Book … Read on
Three years ago I started a novel. It turned into Rock Hopper. Half way through Rock Hopper, I wrote Olivia’s Field, but I kept returning to the Trojan War universe to write more about Rock Hopper’s characters. They had reasons for the choices they made. Most of those reasons never made it into Rock Hopper because too much “explain-y bits” … Read on
We split ourselves, for ease and genre. What do you read? Everything, but mostly scifi. Speculative fiction doesn’t cut it. Fantasy is science fiction in the broad scheme. The writing guild is Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, after all. But we’ll take it further than that. I’m about to head to Sasquan, this year’s World Science Fiction Convention and … Read on
I’m a planner. I have a plan b, a contingency plan and then a couple more besides. The decision tree never ends, why should the planning? I write, after all, and this planning is really plotting. There are many plans in action at one time, too. Sometimes the plan changes, but the pieces of the old plan can be picked … Read on
I can’t afford the price of selfishness. Seeing more of the world, both in person and through the eyes of new-found internet friends, educates me and makes sitting in my comfortable life a little less easy. Sometimes it adds discontentedness to the equation, for example when point A is children in my own country going without food. I’m willing to … Read on
Whatever the medium I’m working in, I have a vision in mind when I produce a work. It might be something that comes across in an obvious fashion, or my meaning might be subtle. Either way, there is rarely creation without intent. A five year old might say they want to put all the colors on a page, and a … Read on
Agency is a big issue for people writing young adult and new adult novels these days. Sometimes it’s described by writers as the main characters ability to make choices inside the plot. More interestingly, a character’s agency is most often described (or defended) as the innate ability a character has to make choices, an assessment that ironically removes agency when … Read on
I have calluses. We all do. Some on the feet or elbows, maybe on your hands if you’re the outdoorsy type. I’m not the out-of-the-house sort by nature, but I’ve worked in barns for years and earned some calluses. I work in t-shirts when it’s technically freezing outside because the work I do every day, for a couple hours a day, … Read on
We’re all singing the song of doing these days. We have things we’ll do better, stop doing, things we do that we’ll improve upon. We’ve cleaned out houses and minds and are ready for the days ahead. Fresh attitude. Fresh outlook. Fresh To Do list. I have a month-by-month plan. It’s a good plan. It will unravel if I start … Read on
Rock Hopper is in its penultimate editing phase, which means we need to pick a cover. These are not the final versions, but are edging that direction. Which style do you prefer?