http://www.stonetable.org An economy of words Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:32:13 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've been posting under the nom de plume "Stone Table" for the better part of fifteen years. As my writing career begins to bloom I've realized that a more professional web presence would be prudent. Not that I have a problem with my moniker but having to introduce myself as ... http://www.stonetable.org/2009/12/27/new-beginnings/ Today is a travel day for me. While I brave the winter storms and make my way to California for business meetings and a Christmas party, enjoy this beautiful song I discovered just a few days ago. http://www.stonetable.org/2009/12/09/travel-day/ Even though my current favorite show, Dollhouse, has been officially canceled1, the folks over at Smart Pop are running a Dollhouse Essay Contest. We love Dollhouse. And we know from Buffy and Firefly that Joss Whedon fans are across-the-board smart, insightful, and involved. So we’ve teamed up with Jane Espenson, Dollhouse writer ... http://www.stonetable.org/2009/12/08/explore-the-dollhouse/ Inspired by John Scalzi's "In the Spirit of Pulps, and Paying Even Less", there has been a slew of discussion on the topic of pay rates for authors (and I'm sure I've missed some). In short, John rails against markets paying minuscule per-word rates for fiction and defenders from both ... http://www.stonetable.org/2009/12/08/doing-the-limbo-how-low-will-you-go/ I have my first story, published in the Return to Luna anthology from Hadley Rille Books, available to submit as a reprint. I've read/heard a few good discussions about the economics of reprint sales but I am woefully uneducated on them otherwise. Help me, hive mind. Any best practices to ... http://www.stonetable.org/2009/11/04/reprint-questions/ Shortly after World War Two, a statue to honor the memories of the dead was erected in the Ukraine. The gas torch in its palm symbolized eternal memory. Years later, the Soviet Union fell and infrastructures crumbled. Natural gas shortages led to the flame being turned off and for years ... http://www.stonetable.org/2009/10/16/the-eternal-flames-pixels-burn-bright-and-efficiently/ Not gonna do it. Nope. I've decided NaNoWriMo is not for me, at least for the foreseeable future. I think the NaNo people are doing a great thing. Noble, in fact. Every year they relaunch on October 1st and every year I log back in to my account, thinking, this is ... http://www.stonetable.org/2009/10/15/nomonano/ One good thing about being broke is that paper and ink is cheap and ideas are free. I've managed to do a fair bit of new writing in the past couple of months but I've been bad about blogging about it. New stories written, old stories rewritten, a handful of submissions ... http://www.stonetable.org/2009/10/05/writing-update-october-edition/ My Jim Gunn workshop classmate Kij Johnson has a new story, "Spar", up at Clarkesworld. The story is explicit, both in language and content, and very worth reading. I'm not in the reviewing business, so I'll just point you here and here for two that nail it. http://www.stonetable.org/2009/10/01/spar-by-kij-johnson/ Beth Bernobich has an insightful post on judging a writer's potential. If you haven't read it, you really should. I was going to follow up with my own thoughts on the subject but it turned into a rant on writing excuses. Read Beth's post instead, because she really does nail ... http://www.stonetable.org/2009/09/21/judging-a-writers-potential/