Making Light Indices Jan-Apr 2005

Making Light Indices updated to Jan-Apr 2005

Writing and genre

Writing Advice. Teresa discuss the bad to some extent and points to some of the good, including a link to stuff she wrote and sent to Neil Gaiman about the getting of agents. I feel compelled to note that there is one thing that I disagree with in the latter, and I would welcome Teresa or someone else explaining to me why I am wrong, because it would reassure me enormously if I was. The advice I don't buy is this: "If you're writing fiction, the True Secret Answer is "get an offer." If you've got an offer, you can get an agent. If you don't have an offer, you don't want the kind of agent you're likely to get." I think that 10 years ago, and maybe even 5 this was great advice. But the number of places that will look at unagented manuscripts has plummeted since then and with it your odds of being able to work this trick. 149 comments Jan, 2005.

Excerpt from on Onion post on copyediting the great American novel and Teresa's reaction to same. Fun stuff. 49 comments Jan, 2005.

Publish America and Atlanta Nights. For those unfamiliar with Atlanta Nights, it's an intentionally awful novel written in collaboration by a bunch of SF and fantasy writers as a sting operation aimed at PublishAmerica. According to Teresa "...it’s also a meditation on the many ways a novel can be bad." 227 comments Jan, 2005. There is a follow up post on the topic here. 193 comments Jan, 2005. And another, including Teresa admitting to chapter 15. 81 comments Feb, 2005.

More Atlanta Nights including Free homework on same. Oh my. 82 comments Apr, 2005.

"Jeff VanderMeer dreams of Tor" Literally. And yes, it's as strange as it sounds. 51 comments Mar, 2005.

General Index stuff

Internet Discourse

Teresa discoursing on online moderation. Lots of very smart stuff for bloggers and others involved in internet discussion. 159 comments Jan, 2005.

Linky bits

A round up of April Fools stories involving F&SF and a zillion other places, much of it hysterically funny. 60 comments Apr, 2005.

LOTR

The Tolkien sarcasm page does your homework for you...free term papers and anyone who uses them deserves what they get. 170 comments Apr, 2005.

Misc

Wrong dosages and narcolepsy. 172 comments Feb, 2005. With meds and neurology update here .97 comments Apr, 2005.

Drive-by mothering, the worst sort of unasked for advice on how to handle one's children. 260 comments Feb, 2005.

"A seedweight of strong old speech" history of the English language geeking. 50 comments Apr, 2005.

Book burning in the Indian state of Manipur including some ancient and irreplaceable texts. Argh!!! 55 comments Apr, 2005.

Poetry

Anglo Saxon poetry tidbits. 127 comments Mar, 2005.

Follow up to a post on Thomas Friedman's effect on other writers, in which the truth of the theory is demonstrated in good poetry. 25 comments Apr, 2005.

Politics

The Red Lake school shooing, Terry Schiavo, Republican action figure and how they reflect on the species. 234 comments Mar, 2005.

Terry Schiavo. 193 comments Apr, 2005.

Thomas Friedman, a bad writer and thinker who inspires good ones to rebut him. 69 comments Apr, 2005. Follow up in which the truth of the theory is demonstrated in good poetry. 25 comments Apr, 2005.'

Recipes

Sole in a panicky green sauce. A http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifrecipe with a digression in why not to eat squid when dining with squidlike aliens. V silly. 82 comments Apr, 2005.

Religion

"Cult vs. church: a proposed rule of thumb". Religion and humor, two great tastes that taste great together...or something like that. 433 comments Mar, 2005.

Cardinal Ratzinger becomes pope. 335 comments Apr, 2005.