Writer Unboxed

Spring has sprung in the Northeast, and after six weeks of cabin fever, it’s getting mighty hard to stay chained to the keyboard.  Sometimes I have to dig deep for motivation.  One of those things that keeps me motivated is the prospect of winning a contest.  Yeah, I used to be a contest junkie.  I’m better […]

Juliet Marillier blogged about different writing styles last week: Are you a hummingbird or an owl? In comments I admitted I had a hummingbird spirit but was striving to learn owlish ways. It hasn’t been easy, especially with regards to using an outline.
It’s a romantic notion that writers can just sit down and become […]

I’m at the place in my current wip where I start doing what I’ve been avoiding for the last four months (since NaNo!): tinkering.
I know what set me off. Therese and I are starting a run of interviews with writers who’ve written killer books on the craft. Since we read the books of […]

Therese and I have had the privilege of interviewing many wonderful authors for WU.  One of the questions we often ask them is: “What’s your favorite craft book?”
Almost without exception, author Ralph Keyes’ books top their list.  His books, THE COURAGE TO WRITE and THE WRITER’S BOOK OF HOPE, have inspired countless writers to overcome their fears and to find ways to get […]

In my last post, I briefly skidded over the statement your story shouldn’t mirror your life, and I thought I’d elaborate a bit on this theory.
Let me back-up. Tucked away in the dredges of my hard drive sits a manuscript that went unsold. True, I did receive agent representation from it, so it […]

I have a hard time doing one thing at a time when that one thing is a boring task. So while I was blow-drying my hair the other day, sitting on the floor, I reached for one of my son’s games: the 20Q by Radica. This twenty-questions game has the uncanny ability to be right, […]

Apologies in advance for any incoherence in this post – I came back from New York three days ago and jetlag is sticking to me like glue. I don’t even feel perky in the evenings, it just feels like 4am all the time. It might be over-stimulation as well as international travel that’s pickling my […]

Ask and ye shall receive.
I sent an e-mail query to Christopher Tolkien to see if he’d be willing to be interviewed by WU in advance of the eagerly awaited publication of his father’s last work of his stupendous Middle Earth mythology, The Children of Húrin. The best I hoped for was a polite ‘no […]

“While Monette’s story engages, her characters deserve a standing ovation.”
—Booklist
“A lush novel, rife with decadent magic, debilitating madness, and dubious deeds, told in a compelling entwined narrative.”
—Jacqueline Carey 
With the publication of MELUSINE, a stunning debut into the fantasy market, and successful followup effort, THE VIRTU under her belt, Sarah Monette has carved out an enviable place in a […]

Allison’s first post (welcome, Allison!) was particularly interesting because I was planning to write about the role of autobiography in fiction for my next post: when we come up with new stories, are we spinning webs from thin air, or are we just rewriting our own experiences? This debate is hot in the British publishing […]