This week, I’m busier than Shane McGowan’s dental team—but here are some spiffy links.
At Writer Beware!, Victoria Strauss compiles recent links about the business of writing.
Much discussion ensues when John Scalzi upbraids the three biggest science fiction magazines for not accepting electronic submissions.
Strange Horizons tells aspiring writers the “stories we’ve seen too often.” So does Clarkesworld: “stories about young kids playing in some field and discovering ANYTHING. (a body, an alien craft, Excalibur, ANYTHING).”
At Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner offer a “turkey city lexicon” of writing errors and hackneyed plots. Heck, the SFWA’s entire roster of writing-advice articles is superb.
Steven Hart serves up a link-rich post about editing, book promotion, and publishing contracts.
Jake Seliger wants to know: What’s the deal with white covers on nonfiction books?
Jason Fisher explains “the Lewis/Tolkien collaboration that might have been (but never was).”
Steven Till points us to John Crowley on the art of historical fiction.
Per Omnia Saecula bravely continues its “bad medieval movie” series.
Quid Plura? 
Shane with a full set of teeth? What’s this world coming to?
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You’d think that nowadays when kids are no longer allowed to play in fields and discover stuff, that a story about kids playing in fields and discovering stuff would be exotic and countercultural.
(FYI, my kids ARE allowed to play in fields and discover stuff. No magical swords or aliens yet, but my son did find a bike and fix it up, and once he found a $20 bill which he promptly spent on Legos.)
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electronic submissions…the publishing industry as a whole seems to be caught in a time warp. If you sign up for a magazine subscription, for example, they’ll typically tell you it will take *6 weeks* to get your first issue…this for a biweekly, so we’re not talking about inherent cycle time here.
What on earth are they doing during this time interval? The data entry was done by the person who took your subscription order…I can’t image the justification for this delay unless they just want to order to age, like fine wine….
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