by Terry McGarry Originally appeared in the Bulletin of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Spring 1995. Copyright © 1995 Terry McGarry. Reprinted with permission. Many copyeditors prefer to spell the word “copyeditor.” I laughed when I got page proofs of a short story I had written about a copyeditor: the anthology’s copyeditor […]
It’s the nature of writers to fall in love with words, particularly their own. Clever turns of phrase excite us; we beam like proud parents when our protagonists take on lives of their own; a shapely plot twist can turn our heads. There is nothing wrong with indulging in the occasional fling-as long as it stops in draft. When time comes to make that final revision, however, you must harden your heart, sharpen the ax and murder your darlings.
by Alexandra Elizabeth Honigsberg It’s often said that nothing learned goes to waste. Certainly we as writers find this is true. Everything is grist for the story mill. I’ve also noticed that, as I read the bios of my fellow authors, we have chequered pasts and still tend to wear several hats. I am no […]
by Dr. Debra Doyle This rant first appeared in the book review section of hwæt!, my zine for Apanage, a children’s literature apa. Later on, I posted it in the Doyle&Macdonald topic on GEnie’s Science Fiction RoundTable. And after that, it seems to have taken on a life of its own. The Giver (the 1994 […]
by Dr. Debra Doyle The temptation, in arguments involving genre fiction and literary taste, is to give up and say, “Okay, I’m a philistine, not to mention an unlettered slob. I like the books anyway” — but dammit, I’m not an unlettered slob, I’m a professional writer with an earned doctorate in English literature, and […]
by B.W. Clough Copyright © 1995 B. W. Clough. First published in the Fall 1995 issue of the Bulletin. A writer needs many gifts to succeed. One that I fatally lack is the gift of titling. I can write a good book or story, but choosing an appropriate, zingy, marketable title for it is often […]
From March, 1986, until its untimely demise in February, 1989, I was the Editor-in-Chief of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, and Editorial Director of its “twisted sister” publication, Night Cry. During that time, we received an average of one hundred manuscripts per week, in addition to a backlog of more than 2000 manuscripts left behind by my predecessor.
If you’re having trouble logging into the discussion forums there are a couple of possible answers.
by Stephen Baxter Copyright © 1995 by Stephen Baxter. First published in the Fall 1995 issue of the Bulletin. Many reviewers have pointed out the influence on much of my work of James Blish’s classic hard sf tale “Surface Tension” (1952). Parallels with “Surface Tension” show up most strongly in those of my stories which […]
by David Alexander Smith Critiquing in a workshop context is a skill worth learning. Some tips for the novice: Before you begin. Familiarize yourself with workshop procedures and etiquette. Take some time with the Glossary of critiquing terms and become familiar with the jargon; we use it frequently, especially in the verbal critique, and it […]
The second volume in the Aurora Award-winning and World Fantasy Award-nominated Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction series offers readers the essential collection of
outstanding works by Canadians from the past year.
L. Marie Wood creates immersive worlds that defy genre as they intersect horror, romance, mystery, thriller, sci-fi, and fantasy elements to weave harrowing tapestries of speculative fiction. Wood is a Professor of English and Creative Writing.
