The Writing Life: Reading Your Own Writing

Ah, my writing holiday is almost over, as I get the developmental edits on The Killer and The Dead back tomorrow. I have one more night of imagining I’ll get a note of stunned awe, and thanks for writing such a thing of searing beauty. And writers out there, you do hope for that kind …

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Why I Write Fantasy: To Write the Classic Non-Human Races, in Other Books, Later

  In the fantasy of my youth non-human races were always part of the magical formula that took me from the mundane here, to the fantastical there. Talking animals, creatures from greek myth, folklore figures brought to life, all of them were part of that secret world just around the corner and over the hill …

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The Writing Life: Writing as an Exercise

Part of writing is persisting when you’re not feeling particularly up for it: you’re tired, distracted, unsure, stuck, maybe even bored and wanting to move on, but no, you’ve got to write that next page. Sometimes I’ll just go to bed. Other times I’ll get a cup of tea, play a few racks of pool, …

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