Point of View

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POINT OF VIEW: Managing Imposter Syndrome

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Imposter Syndrome / Mask - deposit Photos

I try to stay strong. I try to project optimism into the world, because that’s what I want to come back to me. But damn, sometime’s it’s hard. Today I am struggling with my IC – my inner critic, but rather than wallow in all the messages it’s giving me, I thought it would be better to share the ways in which I deal with it when I’m feeling like the fake-est phony who ever lived. So here are my strategies for coping with imposter syndrome, in no particular order. I hope they’re helpful to you, too: Reread Some (Good) … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: On Aging and Writing

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aging - deposit photos

Today is my fifty-third birthday. When I was younger, someone who was my current age was old. They dressed in slacks and cardigans, walked a lot slower, and ate things like green beans and beef stroganoff. Now that I’m fifty-three, it doesn’t seem so old anymore. Part of this is the Boomers’ fault – they refused to act their age, and brought their jeans and workout routines and chopped salads with them into their golden years. Being fifty-three now isn’t what it was four decades ago. And part of it is that I just don’t feel it. I vividly remember … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: The Publishing Industry

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Stress - Deposit Photos

Joel Arellano asked me to talk a bit about “Dealing with the volatility of the publishing industry.” I’m going to go a step beyond that and talk about the industry in general. I love publishing. I have been a book fanatic since I was a little kid, and always wanted to be a published author. When I was in my teens, it was a lot harder. There weren’t nearly as many publishers, and the big ones had the gates locked down tight. Sure, most took open submissions back then, but that was basically an invitation to languish in the slush … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Dropnauts – Making the Perfect Cover

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Dropnauts cover wrap

Designing a cover is hard. My first such effort, years ago, was limited by my skill at manipulating things in Photoshop, as well as my lack of expertise in finding good images to work with. The latter still takes me the longest – I have to really consider the story as a whole and think about what might represent it. And then I have to find it. That often takes hours and hours, paging through stock photo sites and following “More Images Like This” rabbit holes when I see something I like that’s not quite right. I’ll often have ten … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Writers Who Inspire Me

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Inspiration - Deposit Photos

Fan Joel Arellano recently asked me what writers inspired me. Every author writes from a font of knowledge and a stew of weird ingredients created from a life’s worth of experience – where we grew up, how we were raised, and what we consumed over those (for me) long 52 years now. But one big piece of this is the other writers we have read. So here, in no particular order, is a non-comprehensive list of some of the writers who have inspired me, and why. Sherri S. Tepper: I first encountered Ms. Tepper’s work in the supermarket checkout line. … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Reworking/Extending an Old Story

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go back - deposit photos

Today I’m answering a fan question from Joel Arellano… Which of your works would you extend or rewrite? I’ll start with the rewrite one. In general, I don’t like to go back and mess with my finished work too much. But I often do a light-to-heavy rewrite for most of my shorter work when it goes out of print and I re-release it. For instance, Homecoming, one of my earliest published works, got a “smoothing” rewrite, incorporating some of the things I’ve learned since, like not taging every utterance with “he said” and “she said,” and I also added a … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Shouting Into the Void

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Shouting Into the Void - Deposit Photos

Every author reading this knows what this column will be about, just from reading the title. Well, at least every self-published author. You have done everything right. You have a website, a blog, a facebook profile (and page/group!). You’re on Twitter, the ‘gram, Slack, Zoom, Discord, and a hundred other apps you probably forgot you downloaded. You’ve writen your ass off, paid a professional editor, and have created or commissioned covers that would make the Gods weep. They ought to – they cost you enough. You have Nanowrimo’d, workshopped, critique-grouped and edited your writing to a finely honed skill, and … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: After the Con

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blue man sad - Deposit Photos

The Rainbow Space Magic virtual con ended yesterday, and I’m feeling that weird post con mix of elation and let-down. It was wonderful to see many of my fellow authors and readers, and to spend time moderating a couple topic panels, and to hang out in the reading panel with Angel Martinez and Rory Ni Coileain. The read and the discuss aspect of the RSM reading hours is one of my favorite things about the con. I really miss in person cons, though. The ability to meet somebody and grab a coffee with them at the hotel Starbucks, or to … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Damage

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Damage - deposit photos

“What’s your damage, Heather?” We all carry damage around with us in some way, shape or form, like an unwanted hitchhiker. Damage from things that were done to us as children. Damage from things we did to others. Damage from the world and society at large. I carry the damage of homophobia. Of being called a faggot and queer and a sissy, damage from the nasty looks straight guys sometimes gave me when I was a teenager. I carry the damage of shattered hopes, dreams, and expectations, and the damage of a few hundred writing rejections that feed my imposter … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Technobabble

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technobabble mumbo jumbo - Yay Images

One of my friends/fans, Joel Arellano, asked me to talk a bit about technobabble in sci-fi, so here we go. Oxford defines technobablye as “incomprehensible technical jargon.” Basically, in sci-fi, it’s when a writer throws in a bunch of high-tech words to make their story sound all sciencey and shit: Jelyk pulled the thromb-whistle to spin the arkensphere up to speed. Somewhere in the guts of the Hawkthorne, the mighty raction engines powered up, ready to thrust the massive ship into hyperspace. See? I really know my technobabble. I bet you don’t even know what an arkensphere is, but now … Read more