So I stumbled upon this today, which should be of great interest to any writer or editor or bookworm types. I guess there has been much hue and cry and flamewars and hollering on the blogosphere, but I’m oblivious until weeks later. Typical. But I thought this analysis of the book chains was veeeery interesting in a grim, cold-eyed, nuts-and-bolts kind of way.

Managed to cut two scenes into one and cut 1187 words... or 38% of the total word count.   (Talking about the co-authored book with Chris .) I'm feeling good... granted, that's a drop in the...for lunch with her high school friend, Grace.   J   #   To those who celebrate: Happy Halloween, Blessed Samhain, Blessed All Souls/All Saints!    

My short story “A Water Matter” is now up at Tor.com . This takes place just after the first third of Green , within the same continuity, though Green herself does not directly enter into the story. Go enjoy! Originally published at jlake.com . You can comment here or there .

Diana Pharaoh Francis is another of my SFNovelist friends.  We're also siblings in a way, in that we are both represented by super-duper agent Lucienne Diver.  And, long ago I blurbed Di's first novel...here to Mysterious Galaxy , Barnes and Noble , or Amazon .  For more about me, a taste of the books, or random useful information, go to my website . Here’s a link for my blog, Mad Libs .

I'm pleased to post that I've written an article for IBM DeveloperWorks!   They posted it yesterday. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-publish/ Thank you, Renee, for hiring me to write this!  

You know that old story about how all your favourite authors, or not your favourite authors, but really sucessful ones, how they all struggled before someone noticed their genius? I may or may not have... And she got an agent very quickly--two queries. But I could also mention authors like John Grisham, 15 queries, 3 yeses from agents. End quoting. Can I just say: "Ouch." Ah well, we soldier on

  This weekend was utterly crazy.  First off, I get reward for nanowrimo, for last year.  Dude, I get my own free paper back copy of Falling Stars?  No freaking way.  No.  Freaking.  Way.  When I...is gonna be hell.  Why the heck did I say I'd co-op a story with Sam, and do my own?  But, either way, I'm not losing, and last year, Thanksgiving saved me.  So, it'll work itself out, again.

I promised to post the cover to the latest Comicopia and since I got confirmation that members have started receiving their issues, I felt it was okay to share. So, here you go! The issue's theme was "Strange... then you'll recall how Apes always sell! :) ). The art is by Gabriel Morrissette. Click the image to go to the site and then select Year 18 Covers from the drop-down menu to see the other covers :

I really do wonder how it is that I, or any agent or editor is expected to believe that some people believe they deserve to be read when they can't even put the energy into finding out the basics of submission...is effective, and use description like a scalpel and not an bulldozer? This is like expecting someone who fails their drivers license test twelve times to be able to safely pilot a fighter jet.

...that I add about 300 more words...which was easy, so I did. This does my already ginormous ego worlds of good (or bad if you think I'm a prick). I think I have a pretty good record when it comes to publishing my work...statistically speaking. Chicken Coop was rejected three times before acceptance. Snuff was rejected once. The other two did not get rejections at all, but that's as much a mystery...