I've stopped participating in online conversations about self-publishing vs. traditional publishing. Every person has to follow their own way, as we know, so I don't see the point in even having those conversations. I mean, who cares anyway? But I love the idea of making my own books. I've made a few in the past. …
Shut the hell up, you silly writer!
So. I finished (well, as much as I ever finish) the story I was pontificating about yesterday. The problem with talking about things is that I leave the conversation wondering why I make such a big deal out of...whatever. Now I feel this story has an impossible burden placed upon it. At this point I …
To Write or Not Write That Sex Scene
Why not fade to black and leave it all to the imagination? The reader's imagination is a great thing and shouldn't be underestimated. The comments on yesterday's post made me think about several issues when deciding whether or not to write a sex scene. I'm no expert at writing such things, so this is mostly …
Slippery Little Bastards
I really good at not writing sex scenes. I was, after all, raised not talking about lots of things. In fact, by my teenage years, I was an expert at figuring out what my family was not talking about. The more I didn't talk about the things, the happier everyone was with me. There have …
Women Are Awesome. How about if We Stop Murdering Them?
I don't remember when I started to care about women. (And I'm not going to say women's issues because it's not a self-contained status sort of thing. We're half the population----nothing special interest about that.) In grad school I complained about a professor who told the class his favorite bar was called "The Silent Woman" …
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Kill Them All!
I've just killed someone. Well, a fictional someone. A fictional character that I quite liked. She was young. And sympathetic. I wanted her to live, but that seemed...so unlikely. I've killed characters before...this one just bothered me more than usual. Maybe I've watched too much of Stranger than Fiction. Am I killing a character because …
This Witch Doesn’t Make Love Potions, She Makes Stories (although maybe that’s the same thing)
To be a successful writer takes many things. The first thing may be a definition of success. For some people, that's lots of sales. I've had my art in two art festivals. Hundreds of people walked through my booth. Some of those people stopped to look. A few of those people talked to me. And …
Rejection Is Funny
BBC Channel 4 seems to take issue with sharing videos----silly folks----but whatev because you should see this clip on dealing with rejection. The bit about "sucking out your eyes" was particularly funny to me. I'm getting ready to send more stories out into the world of literary journals. Either a story will be rejected (likely!) …
My Narrow View Is Sharp Enough to Stab Him in the Eye
I spend a stupid amount of time worrying if my writing is good enough. But apparently what I needed was a good old-fashioned sexist attack to make me know my writing is a damn well just fine. Have you seen the article about VS Naipaul? NPR picked up the story from The Guardian. And Naipaul …
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Maybe Keep Going
This may be the end. Well, of the whole National Blog Post Month is over for me. Whew. I tried this a couple of years ago and it may be a couple more years hence before I do it again. Maybe! You never know. In the meantime, I'll be hanging out at the roller rink …
Marta Bacon 