What Fates Impose Kickstarter

Published on June 17, 2013, at 8:39 am.

Earlier this year I wrote a story about an elephant that could paint the future. That story, “A Crash Course in Fate,” has been accepted into an anthology titled What Fates Impose.  As you can probably guess, the anthology is filled with stories about fate.  (My previously published story “A Great Destiny” has also been accepted as a reprint.)  However, the publisher is trying a “crowdfunding” business model with this anthology.  The anthology will be published (and the authors will get paid) only if the project’s Kickstarter reaches its goal of $5000. It’s already up to $1240 after only 5 days, with 27 days to go, but obviously every bit of support helps.  If you’re interested in reading my story (and others by authors such as Ken Scholes, Cat Rambo, Ferrett Steinmetz, Keffy R.M. Kehrli, and more), please consider pledging $10 to get the ebook or $20 to get the print book.  For the aspiring writers among you, there are rewards at higher levels that include manuscript critiques from award-winning authors.  Your pledge is only charged if the project as a whole manages to achieve its funding goal, so you don’t lose any money if the project falls short.)

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Tweets for the week of 06-01-2013

Published on June 8, 2013, at 11:59 pm.
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My first mystery story publication

Published on June 5, 2013, at 7:53 am.

I’ve had many science fiction and fantasy stories published.  Some have had mystery elements to them.  But “Wouldn’t Be Much,” in the June issue of Crimson Fog magazine, is my first plain mystery story — no science fiction or fantasy involved.

But it does involve magic.

Crimson Fog uses a Flash-based reading application that makes it look like you’re reading in a paper magazine, so they can do some really interesting things with layout.  It also means I can embed the issue here, so you can read the story my clicking on the cover below. (If you’re reading on a device that doesn’t support Flash, like an iPhone or iPad, try this link.)

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Tweets for the week of 05-25-2013

Published on June 1, 2013, at 11:59 pm.
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Tweets for the week of 05-18-2013

Published on May 25, 2013, at 11:59 pm.
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Tweets for the week of 05-11-2013

Published on May 18, 2013, at 11:59 pm.
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Tweets for the week of 05-04-2013

Published on May 11, 2013, at 11:59 pm.
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Tweets for the week of 04-27-2013

Published on May 4, 2013, at 11:59 pm.
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Ender’s World is out

Published on May 2, 2013, at 7:27 am.

The anthology of essays about Ender’s Game I talked about here is now available.  My essay is titled “How It Should Have Ended,” and you can read the beginning over on the SmartPop Books website.

Here’s the table of contents:

  • Introduction: Ender’s World – Orson Scott Card
  • How It Should Have Ended – Eric James Stone
  • The Monster’s Heart – John Brown
  • The Cost of Breaking the Rules – Mary Robinette Kowal
  • Winning and Losing in Ender’s Game – Hilari Bell
  • Parallax Regained – David Lubar, Alison S. Myers
  • Mirror, Mirror – Alethea Kontis
  • Size Matters – Janis Ian
  • Rethinking the Child Hero – Aaron Johnston
  • A Teenless World – Mette Ivie Harrison
  • Ender on Leadership – Colonel Tom Ruby
  • Ender Wiggin, USMC – John F. Schmitt
  • The Price of Our Inheritance – Neal Shusterman
  • If the Formics Love Their Children Too – Ken Scholes
  • Ender’s Game: A Guide to Life – Matt Nix

I reread Ender’s Game for just before writing my essay, and was struck again by what a brilliant book it is.  Obviously, it has really struck a chord with the reading public — last year, 27 years after it first came out, it was the #1 best-selling science fiction book of the year (in print).  If you haven’t read it in a while (or ever) I recommend reading it — and then reading Ender’s World to get some interesting perspectives on it.

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Manuscript Tip: How to replace underlining with italics in Microsoft Word

Published on May 1, 2013, at 6:25 pm.

For years, standard manuscript format has held that italics should be indicated by underlining.  So many writers are used to underlining in their manuscripts.  But some editors and agents now prefer to have real italics instead of underlines.  Fortunately, it is possible to use Microsoft Word’s search and replace tool to make the change.  I offered to do this for a friend earlier today, and she emailed me her novel manuscript. Two minutes later, I emailed the manuscript back with all the underlines changed to italics — and that included download and upload time.  But I can’t do that for everyone, so I figured I’d explain the process, step by step.  It looks like a lot of steps, but it’s really not that difficult, and it should all make sense when you look at it.

  1. Open the “Find and Replace” dialog (Ctrl-H)
  2. Click on the “More” button
  3. Click in the “Find what:” box
  4. Click on the “Format” button
  5. Choose “Font…”
  6. From the “Underline style:” pulldown, choose the single thin line
  7. Click “OK”
  8. Under the “Find what:” line, it should now show “Format: Underline”
  9. Click in the “Replace with:” box
  10. Click on the “Format” button
  11. Choose “Font…”
  12. From the “Underline style:” pulldown, choose “(none)”
  13. In the “Font style:” list, choose “Italic”
  14. Click “OK”
  15. Under the “Replace with:” line, it should now show “Format: Font: Italic, No underline”
  16. Click the “Replace All” button
  17. All your underlined words should now be italicized words with no underlining.
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