by marissa | Jun 20, 2012 | Craft of Storytelling (Writing Techniques & Ideas), Science Fiction
I just had the best evening drinking wine and eating licorice while reading Cat’s Cradle. Kurt Vonnegut is damned fine company (I’m gonna refer to him in the present tense because being a great author makes you immortal). The way he takes care of his...
by marissa | May 18, 2012 | Craft of Storytelling (Writing Techniques & Ideas), Science (Cosmos, Mind & Psychology of Reading)
I love magic, and the neuroscience of magic, and I especially love the idea of the “attentional spotlight.” It’s fun to think about how we are these weird, sensitive mammals with semi-uncontrollable focus beams shooting out of the front of our heads...
by marissa | Aug 20, 2011 | Book Reviews, Science Fiction
You’ve probably heard that old writing advice that second-person (“you”) narrative voice is a difficult style to pull off. It is difficult, but every now and then someone writes a story that just nails it. “Just Another Perfect Day,”...
by marissa | Jul 7, 2011 | About Editing
Copyeditors are not all evil grammar-monsters who spend their days hunting for typos just so they can terrify anyone who knows less about writing mechanics than they do. Good copyeditors know that context matters, and they know the difference between an author who is...
