I wrote May’s Dated Essay of the Month in May of 1994. So clearly all the references are dated. Very dated. I do find that I’m fonder of The Stand than I used to be. And I did love that mini-series. I must say that Stephen King is one of my favorite writers. Maybe my very favorite. I’ve read his work since I found Carrie in 1975, and have been hooked ever since. I no longer think that good television is rare. Television has become excellent in the intervening 14 years. There are too many good shows now. I find myself recording hours and hours of TV, watching new stuff well into the summer. But the methods mentioned in here are exactly the same. … Read entire article »

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 »

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 »