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Then It Begins To Resolve

I never do very good by making New Year’s resolutions, but as I get older, I have gotten more focused on setting specific goals.   I feel I accomplished a lot in 2011 - I went to NYC for the first time, I went to New Orleans (ok, let's forget that), I moved into a new house, I published my first novel - two of those are from a lifetime goal list, so 2011 wasn't too shabby.  My only real goal for 2012 is to make 2011 the rule, and not the exception.  That being said, I have a few small goals I will tend to in 2012: Publish my collection of short fiction (Winter 2012) Complete and publish my next novel (Fall 2012) Start work - and complete a first draft?- on the Elizabeth sequel (2013) Go back to NYC Make that return trip to Europe I have been planning for 10 years There's lots of other things I'd love to do, such as: Hold my breath until Community comes back on Stop caring so much about new Apple rumors Redirect frustration over the things I cannot chang...
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Doing The Peanuts Happy Dance

My life is feast or famine. Ask anyone, they'll tell you. Good things in clumps, bad things in clumps. Today, this year hopefully, considering the last, seems to be the start of a good clump. I learned today I sold two short stories (commences with Peanuts Happy Dance to celebrate selling two stories in one day). The first, "Paper Man", will appear in a forthcoming issue of Shimmer . The story is about a young blind woman named Millie who sees the world through the things she makes of paper. The second is "Black Eyed Moon," about best friends who go in search of fallen moon rocks after an asteroid strikes the moon and the debris falls to earth. This will appear in the summer '06 issue of Fantasy Magazine . I want to take a moment and thank E. Sedia for her confidence in me and this story, and all her help. I really appreciate it. Back to happy dance...
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Mirror, Mirror

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Recently I bought a copy of a pretty well reviewed and promoted speculative fiction novel.  About two chapters in, the main character looks in a mirror and describes themself.  I literally closed the book and stopped reading.  The novel had other issues, but this put me right out of the story.  This technique - being generous here - occurs a lot in first person narratives, about as often as a story beginning with the main character waking up from a dream.  The mirror device is best avoided, but not necessarily because it's so overused - it's best avoided because simply put, it's so easy.  A character, especially a protagonist, should never be described; they should be imagined.
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