Tag Archives: novels
Right Writer, Wrong Book
Once, a long time ago, I wrote a book. A mystery novel called Little Girl Blue. I wrote that thing, and re-wrote it, and sliced it and diced it and took it apart and put it back together again. After much … Continue reading
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Tagged novels, query letters, The Mostly True Story of Jack, writing fiction
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Things coming, things doing, and things done.
So, I have a confession to make: I have a ridiculously humungous amount of fun doing bookish events. Maybe I would feel differently if I wrote for grownups and was therefore speaking in front of audiences comprised largely of grownups. … Continue reading
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Tagged Anne Ursu, Arts, Book, Children, Literature, Minneapolis – Saint Paul, Minnesota, novels, public readings, reading, writers workshops
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What I Write About When I Write About Magic
I didn’t mean to be a writer who writes about magic. I have, though, lived my life assuming the possibility of magic. The world, after all, is wondrous and strange. It is incongruous, grimy, chaotic and odd. And that oddness … Continue reading
Secret Doors
Our dear friends, John and Mike, purchased a large, rambling house right by Lake of the Isles recently, with the intention of renovating it into what is guaranteed to be an astonishing piece of beauty. Now John is my husband’s … Continue reading
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Tagged adventures in parenting, architecture, Design 45, home design, kidlit, lake of the isles, novels, remodel, revision
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Dreams, Signs, Wonders (Is there a difference between novel writing and clinical insanity? Probably not.)
There’s a magic thing that happens when a book takes over your life. There is….an unpinning from the world. A sense of nonbeing – or, perhaps multi-being. When I start a book, it feels like play. I doodle pictures of my … Continue reading
On Entropy, Accretion and Exploding Novels
There was a time in my life when I was a lot tougher than I am now. And though I was strong enough to break a man’s nose (and did once, but that is another story) that time in my … Continue reading
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Tagged astronomy, books, deathlessness, entropy, fiction is my job, formation of stars, horsehead nebula, nebula, new novels, novels, writing, Young Adult Literature, youth
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And another thing……
I just finished reading Genevieve Valentine’s glorious novel Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, and HOLY HECK. That novel knocked me out, down and sideways. Now, I’ll write more about it when we get closer to its release date … Continue reading
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Tagged circus, Genevieve Valentine, new books, novels, speculative fiction, steampunk, Tresaulti
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More Stories from the Ever-Awesome Clive
I love Clive. Millions and millions of love. Now, I know it’s very wrong of writers to pick favorites among their characters – much like parents pouring love onto particular children and ignoring the rest. And while it’s true that … Continue reading
I CAN HAZ TITLE!
So we nixed THE BOY WITHOUT A FACE, and then it was JACK BE QUICK, followed by THE CURIOUS FACE IN THE CORNFIELD. Shortly after that, we played with MAGIC UNDERGROUND, then UPROOTED, then THE SECRET HISTORY OF HAZELWOOD, then … Continue reading
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Tagged fiction is my job, LB kids, Little Brown, novel, novels, The Mostly True Story of Jack
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A Great Reluctance
You know in Lord of the Rings, when Bilbo – and then Frodo – are asked to hand over the Ring, and they are overcome and kind of crazed by a sudden unwillingness to part with the wretched thing, despite … Continue reading
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Tagged Childrens literature, fiction is my job, LB kids, Little Brown, novel, novels, transformative thinking
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Once more, into the breach
I have now, hopefully for the last time, received a letter from my editor – this one more of an amalgamation of notes and feedback from several editors at my Beloved Publishing House (all this time on my little ole … Continue reading
