Tag: industry
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Why a Blog?
I’m writing what will hopefully be a quick note, but given its importance, it might wind up much longer than intended. If you read to wherever it ends, congrats. Recently, I’ve noticed quite a few of my fellow writers have launched Substacks. Faced with countless rejections, an industry that treats any project that whiffs of…
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Art for Artists and Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson passed away on June 11th, 2025. I went to work the next day, keeping my composure for most of the commute, until “It’s Not Easy Being Me” started playing. The grandiose instrumentation, paired with frustrated, earnest lyrics, was comforting in a way. A song from the heart, adorned with sound, like a pat…
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Goodbyes
The stages of grief are so well-known they’ve joined the armchair psychologist’s lexicon. However, if you’ve experienced grief, you’ve probably noticed the moment you passed through each stage, how you can still fluctuate between them. Sometimes, when you think you’ve reached Acceptance, you start Bargaining again. Or you’re mired in Bargaining and slip back into…
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What Did I Write?
In her recent video on Lev Grossman’s The Magicians trilogy, video essayist Laura Crone does an excellent sidebar into the “unhinged zone” where she discusses the issues with and inherent superiority of Literary Fiction. As I watched, I completely agreed with her criticisms; I also resent the idea that one amorphous category of literature is…
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Speed
I’m always skeptical of when a literary agency, journal or competition has a rapid turnaround. On one hand, it’s great to have a clear idea of when the result will arrive. The average eight-week (but usually longer) waiting time can be agonizing. I’m often tortured by regret that I didn’t send a better version of…
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How to Write Spec Fic
I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into. A year ago, I launched a Substack on the foolhardy belief I was ready to write a massive work of speculative fiction. Because my writing veers towards epistolary for longer works, the plan was to drip-feed characters’ diary entries as blog posts and create an online archive…
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Zero-Sum
Since my last post, I have received one agent rejection and one (or three?) competition rejection(s). Indomitable, I continue to write whatever words appear in my head and pay for disappointment; I’m not writing to make money, but it is sickening when other people profit from your disenchantment. And that’s what I want to write…