Fantasy, science fiction, and contemporary short stories, often with biblical themes
Dr. Platypus has been posting some kind of fiction series for a few weeks. I just found it with #10. You need to start with #1.
I won’t give away much more other than that languages do get involved, of which I recognized part, but not all, and not specifically.
Enjoy!
At first I was thinking I shouldn’t get involved here, because the first article I read by Monica Valentinelli was title What is the Definition of a Legitimate Publisher?. Good topic, no? But elsewhere I’m a publisher, though not of fiction, struggling sometimes with that legitimacy issue as I try to grow.
Nonetheless, the article makes good points, and several others on the same blog are very worthwhile reading, especially for those who are more serious about fiction publishing for profit rather than just for fun.
Words on the Water | Freelance Writing Blog goes on my blogroll. I hope you benefit from it.
It’s all dressed up for women, but I already see something this guy can sink his teeth into. I’m adding Fresh Fiction to my Bloglines subscriptions, and I’ll be linking to a post tomorrow.
I’m not all that excited about recent posts on statement of purpose, but the Short Mystery Fiction Society blog seems to have potential. We’ll see how often I feel led to link!
From a comment on my Threads blog, I found Beyond Words and after perusing it a bit, I decided to add it to my blogroll here.
I keep intending to add new writing blogs here regularly, but it seems like this blog always gets my attention last, so things get out of date pretty quickly. Kathy has an engaging writing style with some often subtly challenging material. I’d commend this short story titled Heaven, and this post about a retreat as good examples.
I’ve been asked by a number of people how to become a better writer. Despite my current publications, I still find myself more in need of advice than I am prepared to offer it, but I do try to help. I don’t know where I first heard it, but what I usually pass on, and largely all I’m able to pass on is the one thing that worked for me, the “ass-on-chair” approach. (Proofreading comment: Also, avoid long, complex sentences such as the preceding one like the plague. And avoid cliches too! Don’t touch them with a ten foot pole!)
For some better and more detailed rules on how to learn to write, see 10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer.
Row of tipping hats: faithmaps blog, SmartChristian.com, and Church Tech Matters.
I located this post through preparations for the Christian Carnival #179. Due to the time frame requirements on posts I couldn’t include it in the carnival, but I wanted to call attention to it in any case, as it’s a good post from an interesting blog.
From Savvy Writer: Top Three Writing Lessons from the Bible:
This post is not meant to cause an uproar of any religious sort. In my personal opinion, the Bible is the greatest piece of literature every written. Even if you do not believe what it says is true (which I do), you still have to admit that it is one of the greatest writings of all time. It lasted centuries and it the most sold book. So, what can an aspiring learn from the great writings of the Bible?
Go read the three lessons for yourself.
I’m always interested in writing blogs and material that can be found free on the web. I found the Crimson Dark web comic today and read a couple of chapters. I don’t think I’ll get addicted, but if you like that style, I think you’ll find much to enjoy there.
I also found Whatever (John Scalzi’s blog), and much material there that looks interesting. I’m going to be checking out some of his books and may comment on that later.
Amongst writing services blogs I found Scroll and Quill, and this post on Steven King was attractive enough that I’ll add that blog to the “writing blogs” section of my blogroll.
So much for the links today.
After a long hiatus, Tom Sims is back posting on Polecat Hollow. You need to check in on this entry to find out about three styles of skunk tail hats.
I’m working on locating more interesting writing blogs to include in the blogroll, and here is the first. Cory Doctorow is a professional fiction writer with three novels (that I read about on his blog) and some short stories (including a short story collection). He has another collection coming soon.
He posts a good deal of news on his blog but also some short fiction, including When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth. The link there is to his announcement that the story is appearing in The Rake, along with links to previous podcast entries. I think one would need to be a bit net savvy to enjoy this story, but other than that it’s good fun.
His books are:
I have to say that the first short story didn’t rocket him to the top of my reading list, but it did pique my interest, and I’m definitely going to take a further look at some of the novels and I’ll add his blog to the blogroll.