tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364647042008-07-18T08:22:07.918-06:00Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comBlogger607125587854http://www.feedburner.comSubscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with RojoSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with Pageflakestag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-36371150555839847142008-07-18T06:56:00.006-06:002008-07-18T08:22:07.936-06:00I thought this might be appropriate for a Friday, considering some see the looming threat of yet another Monday as nigh unto hell on earth until they get those first five cups of coffee into their system: 8 Rules For Surviving The Apocalypse So, aside from drinking plenty of coffee, what else can...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/339047991" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/8-rules-for-surviving-doomsday.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-17444350603184750952008-07-17T06:45:00.002-06:002008-07-17T09:03:30.927-06:00For today, here is a quick list of the Twelve Books You Should Read at the Beach This Summer, all with a spec-fic slant. Sadly, while I've seen a number of these touted about, I haven't managed to get my hands on any of them. And the only one I'm somewhat familiar with is Sly Mongoose, being the...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/338260614" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/summer-spec-fic-reading-list.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-65220863248483508312008-07-16T07:07:00.002-06:002008-07-16T08:22:46.788-06:00Don't forget! Today is the last day that you can submit to the latest Clarity of Night blog contest. Mine is entry #49, and I'll be reading through all the others, commenting here and there. Let me know if you've submitted anything, and I'll be right there to rig the voting...er...cheer you on. In...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/337163713" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/last-day.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-45028256131264785022008-07-15T07:13:00.003-06:002008-07-15T08:29:26.185-06:00There tends to be a lot of talk in the publishing biz, especially among those trying to break into it, about query letters. How formal should the letter be? How long? Should one include a blank check in the envelope? Email queries versus snail mail? All important stuff to address, but say you've...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/336234977" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/all-about-partials.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-87076426848789951502008-07-14T07:31:00.001-06:002008-07-14T08:26:43.568-06:00I am unabashedly pointing you to another blog post this morning (albeit a rather old one). Coming to you from the Buzz, Balls and Hype blog, here is a hilarious, and rather telling, letter to Santa from a literary agent to Santa, telling the jolly old elf exactly what he wants in his query...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/335299430" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/letter-from-literary-agent.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-66146700690921841812008-07-13T13:10:00.004-06:002008-07-13T14:24:11.903-06:00For this week's installment, we've received the wonderful news that, should you attend the upcoming 2008 Olympics in Beijing, you will not be able to order dog meat at any of the officially designated Olympic restaurants. As a continued sign of how desperate (and creative) people are getting in...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/334531979" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/weird-news-weekend.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-26777418949231079992008-07-12T20:05:00.004-06:002008-07-12T20:06:45.106-06:00Went to the Colorado Renaissance Festival with the wife and my sisters. Lots of fun, great costumes (including my own, minor effort) and much sun, jousting, turkey legs, and m'lords and m'ladies to be had by all. Pictures may come, if you're lucky. Otherwise, a Weird News Weekend edition tomorrow,...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/334003969" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/gone-all-day.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-6739116661189966432008-07-11T07:18:00.001-06:002008-07-11T08:15:47.399-06:00Two warnings. 1. If you haven't read the first two books in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, well, why haven't you? Go out and grab 'em. I recommend them wholeheartedly, and then come back to this post and the link after you've read them, that way this won't contain a bunch of spoilers for...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/332718134" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/mistborn-3-prologue.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-64728374625756362332008-07-10T07:22:00.001-06:002008-07-10T08:15:21.689-06:00The title of this post is pretty self-explanatory. Check this link out for ten items that relate to science fiction and fantasy, and you'll find everything from treatise on worldbuilding to name generators for planets or sci-fi gadget doodads to lists of genre cliches to avoid. There's also free...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/331912289" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/ten-things-for-sci-fiflovers.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-62826403356087502212008-07-09T07:05:00.000-06:002008-07-09T08:20:34.640-06:00It's that time again. Jason Evans, over at the Clarity of Night blog has announced his short fiction contest. If you've taken part in any of the past contests, the rules are all the same. But if you are just now learning about this, here's a rundown. Evans has posted a picture that is to serve as...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/330894117" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/clarity-of-night-short-fiction-contest.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-29535171621995680322008-07-08T07:23:00.002-06:002008-07-08T08:22:16.107-06:00David Louis Edelman, author of the science fiction smash Infoquake, has now released the long-awaited sequel: MultiReal. Both books have received a ton of praise, even before being unleashed on the general public, and from my own reading of Infoquake, I would highly recommend you grab both books,...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/329879769" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/multireal-is-nowwellreal.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-49353987057191370012008-07-07T07:07:00.007-06:002008-07-07T08:22:32.028-06:00So, aside from generally being a lazy butt, the other main reason for maintaining blog silence this whole weekend was the fact that, come Friday morning, our modem decided to take a holiday as well, without notice, I might add. Going for a couple days without internet emphasized two facts that will...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/328973759" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/weekend-without.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-38985972377045365022008-07-03T06:43:00.006-06:002008-07-03T08:17:09.735-06:00Here's a last writing resource for ya right before the holiday weekend hits. Probably won't be around much once it does, so this should keep you entertained for a while. By writers, for writers, Writing Excuses/ is a collection of fifteen-minute podcasts on all sorts of topics and exercises that...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/325938632" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/writing-excuses.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-9866289193776562452008-07-02T07:40:00.005-06:002008-07-02T07:55:06.194-06:00A lot of great series seem to be headed down this track lately. The Dabel Brothers have been working on Dresden Files comics, Dean Koontz comics, George R. R. Martin comics, Raymond E. Feist, and the list goes on... And now they're going to adapt the whole of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series....<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/324993284" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/new-comic-adaptation.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-54467982760375389612008-07-01T07:08:00.004-06:002008-07-01T08:16:53.589-06:00This year's High Voltage ConFusion hosted a number of notable authors, from Tobias Buckell to John Scalzi to Jim C. Hines. They ran numerous panels, interviews and lively discussions over topics that ranged everywhere...internet piracy, web marketing for authors, and so on. If, like myself, you...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/324088066" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/07/recordings-from-2008-confusion.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-63390951817764034352008-06-30T07:17:00.001-06:002008-06-30T07:17:01.752-06:00I've never been one for audiobooks or that sort of thing, but this caught my eye...or ear, as it were. The Leviathan Chronicles is an audio sci-fi drama that is up to Chapter 7 at this point. The premise? A young immortal finds herself swept up in a secret war and must discover why her race is...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/323262360" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/06/leviathan-chronicles.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-32783148532294068892008-06-28T12:47:00.005-06:002008-06-28T17:40:10.289-06:00There appears to be a rash of strange crime-related news this week. For starters: A couple of crooks are overcome with guilt. One escaped from a county jail, but left a rose fashioned out of toilet paper behind, as a way of saying sorry for breaking out. (He was later apprehended and returned to...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/322293220" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/06/weird-news-weekend_28.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-51326623247356976872008-06-27T06:56:00.010-06:002008-06-27T07:05:52.613-06:00If you've ever laid back on a cloudy day and tried to see shapes and images in the floating, fluffy balls of water, you know how much the mind can stretch to fashion sense out of random cotton puffs. But what if you could make a cloud out of your writing? Wordle is a tool/toy (however you want to...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/321313766" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/06/word-clouds.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-22791653021111072062008-06-26T06:57:00.007-06:002008-06-26T08:13:08.147-06:00If you don't know them, Strange Horizons is an nonprofit, free weekly webzine of speculative fiction. Right now, they're trying to raise $6,000 to continue to pay their writers and cover costs for the zine production. Here's the official announcement: 1. Strange Horizons publishes short fiction,...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/320632760" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/06/strange-horizons-webzine-is-trying-to.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-51820077841546916782008-06-25T06:54:00.002-06:002008-06-25T08:22:55.409-06:00David B. Coe, author of nine (and counting) fantasy novels, tells us what's going on in his head as he is having difficulty getting what he calls "the best book he's ever written" published. Despite his track record, despite his being an established author, he can't even get editors to offer a...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/319798605" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/06/even-established-authors-cant-sell.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-82001717306170506452008-06-24T06:58:00.005-06:002008-06-24T06:58:00.240-06:00These kinds of lists are important, because you tend to know about 9 out of 10 of the items on them, but there may be 1 important detail lurking in the background that you can benefit from. And when the topic is the soul-wrenching search for an agent, well, why wouldn't you pay attention? So: 10...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/318895923" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/06/10-ways-to-not-getkeep-agent.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-9132160524865451432008-06-23T06:57:00.012-06:002008-06-23T08:38:57.607-06:00It's funny how deciding the name of a place or person can stop the novel-writing process in its tracks. Their name determines how the reader views them from the first page. You can't very well have a hero running around with the name of Reginald Blooddrinker the Nasty, can you? Nor should your...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/318170837" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/06/fantasy-name-generator.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-62134430145997305632008-06-21T17:30:00.006-06:002008-06-21T17:35:29.219-06:00I really think they could have figured out something more important to do with 800 lbs of bronze. And Is the economy so desperate that crooks have resorted to this? Actually... I think this is a better sign of how penny-pinching some people are getting, when they create their wedding dresses out...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/317144815" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/06/weird-news-weekend_21.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-87409699288639648572008-06-20T07:09:00.001-06:002008-06-20T08:32:41.576-06:00Nathan Bransford, agent and blogger extraordinaire, has started a discussion on the concept of the plot, and the fact that many people, when trying to describe the plot of their novel, just end up describing the hook or the theme instead. What's the difference? A hook is the unique part of your...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/316284067" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/06/what-is-plot.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36464704.post-41785897013167520592008-06-19T07:21:00.023-06:002008-06-19T08:24:35.316-06:00Marie Brennan gives her thoughts on the writer at play, talking about how her experiences with role-playing games, of the dice-rolling variety, have helped her improve as a writer. She says this is because those games force her to think on her feet, adapt to quick changes in a situation, and...<br/> <br/> Visit the site for more content, links, and resources!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jrvogt/MYBK/~4/315470978" height="1" width="1"/>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501549592361240370noreply@blogger.comhttp://www.jrvogt.com/blog/2008/06/can-games-help-your-writing.html