point of view

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Point of View: A Character Experiment

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Characters - Deposit Photos

Characterization has long been my Achilles heel. I grew up reading, big idea science fiction and fantasy, and that’s what I always wanted to write. I had the big ideas, but when I first started my writing career, I didn’t know how to craft compelling characters. I’ve spent the last ten years working on it, using some helpful books filled with character exercises, making story Bibles to track my character info and helping me get inside their heads, and studying how compelling characters are created in books and other mediums. I’ve come a long way, but it’s still a challenge … Read more

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Point of View: Road Trip Report

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I just got back last week from my road trip to WorldCon Seattle. I hadn’t initially intended to go – well, initially initially, yes. But because of the expense and distance and all that, I’d decided to cancel the trip a couple months ago. But since then, a few new writing-related things have happened, and so I changed my mind and headed to WorldCom to see what I could make happen there. Due to some sage advice from good friends, I made a concrete plan of things I wanted to accomplish, and figured out how to do each of them. … Read more

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Point of View: World Con Seattle

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road trip - deposit photos

Two more days to go. Tomorrow, I leave for WorldCon, and on Wednesday the whole shebang kicks off. It’s only my second time at this huge science fiction convention. The first time was before pandemic, in San Jose, California. Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready for it, and we only got to spend a day and a half there, with little to no advance prep. This time is different. While I decided to actually go a bit late, I had made preparations just in case. I will have a table in the dealer room for Liminal Fiction, and I am planning to … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: The Monster at the End of This Book

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The Monster at the End of This Book

Note: I got up this morning, having just finished writing the first draft of Down the River, and thought abut writing a column about The Monster at the End of This Book. Then a little part of my brain tickled me and said “didn’t you do this before?” Turns out I had, and this says exactly what I wanted to say. So I am resharing this column from 2021, with a slight update for my latest novel completion. Enjoy! When I was a kid, I had a few favorite picture books. At the top of the list was The Wump … Read more

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Point of View: Finding the Theme

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book magic - deposit photos - theme

Every story begins with something. Sometimes it’s an especially vivid image of a character that you want to write. Sometimes it’s a shiny plot object, the big idea that you want your whole story to revolve around. And sometimes it’s a theme. No matter where you start, the theme is an important part of your story. You are asking readers to buy into your view of the world, and that viewpoint should be about something. The tricky part is figuring out what that something is. For me, the theme is usually not apparent to me until I get partway or … Read more

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Point of View: Here We Go Again

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My husband Mark is an angel. I came into 2025 at a low point. I’d been searching for a job for fourteen months, and although I’d had a number of great interviews, the answer was a “no” every single time. Things worsened over the next few months, and two jobs I thought I had a great shot at faded away without even an interview. And then a few potentially really good things happened. I can’t share two of them yet – don’t want to scare them away. But suddenly my writer path has grown brighter after ten years in the … Read more

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Point of View: I’m Happiest When I’m Writing?

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We writers are a strange and contradictory breed. Take the act of writing itself. When we’re not writing regularly, we can be sullen, morose, unhappy creatures. And yet, when we are writing… my husband would say “how can you tell the difference?” The actual act of writing can be exalting, even thrilling, as the strength of our ideas and our connection with our characters carries us forward like an unrelenting wave. But even then, we surf at our own peril. Because every wave eventually crashes. More often than not, writing is a long, boring grind. My writer brain has to … Read more

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Point of View: On the Downhill Run

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Over the last decade that I’ve been a serious writer (defined as someone who loses sleep at least three nights a week because their writer brain won’t shut up), I’ve become accustomed to the various stages of my writing projects. There’s the initial honeymoon phase, where I’m convinced I have a fantastic idea and nothing is going to stop me from writing this amazing book that everyone will be clamoring to read. Then there’s the coasting phase, when everything is running smoothly. Sure, it’s not as exciting as it was at the get-go, but the story is unfolding nicely, and … Read more

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Point of View: The Real Meaning of Pride

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I spent the weekend with some dear friends of mine… six of the other authors in our Queer Sacramento Authors Collective group. It was Sacramento Pride weekend, and it was a bit crazy, especially on Saturday morning. On the same day, there were three hge events planned in Downtown: the first day of the Sac Pride Festival, the No Kings Rally one block away at the Capitol, and the UC Davis graduation two blocks away at the King’s basketball stadium. Parking was at a premium, and we arrived four hours before the opening time to make sure we snagged a … Read more

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Point of View: Writing With My Mouth

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mouth - deposit photos

I don’t have enough time to write. To be fair, this is a perennial problem. Most recently, it’s been related to the many hours I poured into the Sacramento Book Festival which happened a week and a half ago, and also to the other weekend events during Pride Season that I attend, and where I manage a table for our local Queer Sacramento Authors Collective group. So I’ve been scrounging for more writng time. A few days a week, I walk over to meet Mark at the Starbucks on the Sacramento State campus. These solo walks take 15-20 minutes, and … Read more