I’m very excited to be planning to attend my first in-person convention in quite some time: this year’s Worldcon is Chicon 8 in Chicago! My schedule is heavy with AI this year: Controlling for Bias in AI – Grand Hall I Friday, September 2, 2022, 2:30 PM CDT Can an AI Be a Person? – […]
There’s been a rash of mischief, or discussion of mischief, around short fiction submissions lately, and I find myself repeatedly saying the same things in different venues. For the sake of convenience, addressed to you, new writer, here is all my blather in one place. The first thing to understand is the role a short […]
Since I’ve got the contract in my hands, it is my great pleasure to announce that my novella “The Liar” will appear in the pages of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This sale is especially sweet to me. Not only am I excited to work with F&SF’s editor CC Finlay, but F&SF was […]
Full details will follow later, but I wanted to share some good news. First, CLAUDIUS REX news: The Table of Contents for this summer’s 2015 Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novellas, from Prime Books has been announced, and this late in the sentence you’ve probably figured out that REX is going to be in […]
So, there are a number of readers who object to profanity or obscenity or other “bad words”. Can’t say I’m one of them. And while I do sometimes think that popular culture has gotten a bit coarse, I don’t hold the position that I ought to have a personally-sanitized version of it. I do have […]
I had reason to recall this morning The Strand’s interview with Rex Stout (which is itself very much worth a read) and noticed an interesting interchange I wanted to comment on: McALEER: Did Archie hang up the picture of Sherlock Holmes that is found over his desk, or did Wolfe put it there? STOUT: Did I say that […]
The Urban Dictionary has listings for two sayings related to the removal of hair from animals. Writers are fond of the phrase “cat waxing“: an industry term for procrastination by writers, with heavy connotation of trying to justify the activity as something that “had” to be done. Usually activities that can arguably be considered […]
I’m a devoted listener to the podcast Writing Excuses — despite their claims to the contrary, they really are that smart — and found their most recent episode, on Middle Grade fiction, to be fascinating. (Defining Middle Grade is contentious, but loosely, it’s fiction for kids 9-12: think Charlotte’s Web, the first Harry Potter book, […]
I have struggled over the past few years with honing my revision skills. I don’t have that much text to work with, and one of my problems is that I’m too close to it. I get some practice with folks whose work I read to critique, but it’s kind of rude to dig in and […]
2011 has been an exciting year for me as a writer. I had my first fiction sale, my first podcast sale, and went to my first convention (Boskone). I won a Codex contest, and did respectably well in another. I signed my first autographs, at Readercon. I bought way too many fountain pens. In terms […]
John P. Murphy 