Kristine Kathryn Rusch » Archive
Black Magic
It’s been an interesting week for me. I spent most evenings watching “Black Magic,” a documentary on the history of black players in basketball. The documentary is 4 hours long and worth every minute. I watched in segments because I didn’t have 4 hours in a row. I’ve been studying history all my life, with a focus on African-American (and Women’s) studies. Yet this is a story I did not know. Everyone knows how baseball became integrated. No one discusses how basketball became integrated (or football, for that matter). I learned a lot, and enjoyed it all. It juxtaposed with an essay by Jerald Walker that I read the same week in the Best American Essays 2007. Walker wrote (and I’m paraphrasing … Read entire article »
Filed under: Tidbits
The State of SF Short Fiction
John DeNardo recently asked me to participate in the Mind Meld section of sfsignal.com. The question was about the state of short fiction in the sf genre. He asked several others as well, and he posted the answers here. It’s an interesting discussion, and I suspect it’ll inspire me to write an essay. But my initial response is amusement: the younger writers wrote pieces I would have written 15 years ago. (And similar responses to the ones writers wrote thirty years ago.) Yes, the digests are hurting–and you should subscribe! Think of all the fiction you can get for the price of a hardcover. Go here for Asimov’s, here for Analog, and here for F&SF. But other short fiction venues are growing. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Tidbits
For Kristine Grayson Fans and Anyone Who Likes Romantic Suspense…
…I have a new book out. It’s under my new pen name, Kristine Dexter. I know that romance readers often don’t like to buy hardcovers. So if you can’t buy the hardcover, do me a favor and ask your library to order it. If you can order the book or have your library do it within the next month (until 5/15), you will help considerably with something called “velocity” which is one of the main ways that book sales are measured. (If a book sells quickly, that’s better than selling the same number of copies slowly.) For more information on the book, head over to the Kristine Dexter page on this site. And enjoy!!!!! … Read entire article »
Filed under: Current News
Writing Is Hard
This week, I heard an interview with bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri in which she noted that “Writing is hard.” She’s not the only writer to say that. I think every writer who has ever been published has uttered that sentence in an interview. I probably have as well. But it’s not true. Writing is not hard. No one dies if a writer’s finger slips, the way someone could if a surgeon’s finger slips. Writers don’t climb poles in the pouring rain to jigger electrified wires so that some poor person’s power can be restored. Writers never risk life and limb to type a sentence. (At least in this country.) So why do writers make this false statement? I used to think we … Read entire article »
Filed under: On Writing
Baen’s Universe
I had time to play on the site for Baen’s Universe today. Baen’s Universe is a full-fledged science fiction and fantasy magazine on the web. It costs $6 to read an issue or $30 to subscribe. I’d recommend a subscription. The magazine has excellent columns and some wonderful short fiction. You can also get podcasts of various stories. And the artwork is lovely. Go and look at the previews, and if you like, hand them your money. You’ll enjoy the magazine. I promise. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Tidbits
How to Write a Perfect, if Flawed, Short Story
Here’s the promised sidebar to the “Confessions of an Editor” article. Read that first. Then read this. This isn’t dated either. How to Write a Perfect, if Flawed, Short Story Kristine Kathryn Rusch So, how does one go from a group of three-year-olds screaming “Halleluiah Chorus” to singing the tenor solos in the Messiah on the stage at Carnegie Hall? Practice, my friends. Practice. And study. Learning to hear the flaws and to expect them, learning how to compensate, and learning how to avoid the obvious ones. Doing scales, day after day after day. Getting training, and listening to the opinions of others. Realizing that talent is not enough, arrogance is not enough. Talent and arrogance do not make art. Human beings make art. But enough of metaphor. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Dated Essay of the Month, On Writing
Confessions of an Editor
Why is this dated? Well, I’m not an editor any more. I happily retired from that job in 1997. I am a writer first and foremost, and I was even in those days. Only people forgot that. They liked my editing and wanted me to edit more. They wanted me to spend all my free time on someone else’s work instead of my own. So I escaped—just barely, I think. This essay was written while I still edited, and its content is still very accurate today. Once again, my haphazard nonfiction records fail me. I believe I first published this in the Report as well. There is a sidebar. I will post that tomorrow. Confessions of an Editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch I write these things … Read entire article »
Filed under: Dated Essay of the Month, On Writing
The Night James Brown Saved Boston
On Saturday as I was driving to the grocery store, I heard a section of an NPR report on a documentary airing on VH1 about James Brown on the night after Martin Luther King was assassinated. The NPR story was interesting enough for me (who as Kris Nelscott wrote a book about the assassination [Dangerous Road]) to tune in. For those of you who weren’t paying attention over the weekend, Friday was the 40th anniversary of King’s death. Cities burned in response. On April 5, 1968, the white government of Boston worried that the James Brown concert planned for that night would be an excuse for black rioting (not kidding). And so they worked with Brown to keep the peace. It’s a fascinating documentary, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Tidbits
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