The Roanoke Times Features Department poses together for a photo. We're mad men (and women) I tell you!
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The Roanoke Times Features Department poses together for a photo. We're mad men (and women) I tell you!
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Wonderful formal poet and frequent Mythic Delirium contributor Ann K. Schwader ( ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.7){kind=small} ankh_hpl) continues the Locus Roundtable series on speculative poetry with "Into the Dark, Singing." |
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Guest posts about poetry at Locus Online Karen Burnham, who runs the Locus Roundtable at Locus Online, has rounded up a series of speculative poetry-related posts, podcasts and interviews for the month of May, and I got to be first out of the gate. Here's my guest blog post: "Let us go then, you and I: an introduction to speculative poetry" And here's a podcast I did with Karen and Star*Line editor F.J. Bergmann. In both I've taken the names in vain of a number of poets and poetry publications. I understand there will be more to come. I'm certainly grateful to Karen for giving us poets a chance to sound off! |
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Over at Tangent Online, reviewer Chuck Rothman has nice things to say about my new short story at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, "The Ivy-Smothered Palisade." He writes:  "The Ivy-Smothered Palisade" takes the form of a letter from Daeliya, a woman who has managed to escape her terrifying past and make a new life for herself. But she is forced to return, and to explain to her lover Eyan why and all the things he doesn't know about her. What follows is a tale of fear and terror, and of her meeting with a man in a mysterious castle to whom she owes everything. Mike Allen creates a very convincing world and strong and memorable characters. If you're curious enough to check out a contrasting view, Lois Tilton at Locus Online appeared to dig the story's dark atmosphere but was definitely not a fan of the epistolary approach. Like a good self-promoting writer type, I'll cheer for what serves my purposes and downplay what doesn't, doncha know? |
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 The Guardian reviews my anarchic buddy Ian Watson's new short story collection Saving for a Sunny Day ("thought-provoking and witty stuff") and makes brief mention of the novelette I co-wrote with Ian, "Dee-Dee and the Dumpy Dancers" (reprinted in the volume,) summarizing it as a "bizarre vision ... featuring aerial ballet and alien turkeys." To which I say, yes, that is an accurate summary. |
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Writer Beware has a vital post up today about vetting editors. Not the kind to whom you submit a manuscript to in the hopes that they'll accept your work, but the kind whom you the writer pay to proofread your manuscript before you send it to anyone. (A route I've never taken, by the way.) I've come to see how hiring an editor can make sense under certain circumstances. But the idea that you must hire an editor before you try to submit work anywhere is one I've seen propagated more and more in the past five years or so (even at a writer's conference where I taught recently) amplified one bajillion-fold by the Kindle-fueled rise of self-publishing. Which is why I'm so grateful that Victoria Strauss included this in her post: Dishonest or ignorant editors sometimes prey on the anxieties of writers who are seeking traditional publication by saying that agents and publishers give preference to professionally edited manuscripts. This is false. ... Plastering your manuscript with "Professionally Edited" or mentioning it in your cover letter is unlikely to improve your chances--in fact it may harm them, as savvy agents and publishers may assume you've been rooked, or worry that you aren't capable of producing a publishable book on your own. Amen! |
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