A Post About Heroes and Villains

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, and Stuart Jaffe, among others. The post is called “Villains and Heroes: One Writer’s Approach” and it is a follow-up to Faith’s wonderful posts about creating strong, believable Big Bads. I hope you enjoy it.

New Web Site is Up!

I have successful concluded my war with Dreamweaver and am now the proud owner of a newly renovated web site.  Check it out at http://www.DavidBCoe.com.

The content is fairly similar to the old site, but the navigation is smoother and it looks ten times better.  At least I think it does.  Let me know what you think.  And while you’re there, please feel free to visit the contests page and enter for a chance to win a signed copy of Dragon’s Lure, the new anthology edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail.  My story, “The Dragon Muse,” is in there, along with works by Misty Massey, C.E. Murphy, and many others.

Check out this Mind Meld

I’m a contributor to today’s “Mind Meld” at SF Signal.  Today’s “Mind Meld” question was “What fantasy series comprised of at least three novels do you think is underrated?  What makes it worthy of more attention?”  Read my answer and those of several other writers here.

A Post About Writing Emotion

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, and Stuart Jaffe, among others. The post is called “‘since feeling is first…” and it is about e.e. cummings’ wonderful poem and the need to imbue our fiction with emotion. I hope you enjoy it.

Rand Paul’s America

Rachel Maddow’s excellent interview of Kentucky GOP/Tea Party Senate Candidate Rand Paul was far more illuminating than Paul would like us to think.  (I would refer you as well to Bob Cesca’s excellent article on the matter.)  Paul says that he opposes racial discrimination, that he abhors racism.  His objections to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he would have us believe, stem only from those clauses in the bill that relate to private business.  So while he would never support allowing the government to discriminate on the basis of race, or gender, or religion, or disability, or sexual orientation, he also opposes allowing government to tell private enterprise what it can and can’t do.  But he’s no racist.

Maybe not.  But he is a Libertarian, just like his Dad, Texas Congressman and former Presidential Candidate Ron Paul.  He supports limited government, and favors privatization of a broad range of institutions and social services currently administered by the government.  So ultimately, if he had his way, it’s conceivable that our National Parks, our social service administrations — like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — even our public education system could be privatized and put in the hands of private businesses.  Private businesses like those he thinks should be exempted from the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

School systems that are designated as “Whites Only”?  A privatized Social Security Administration that refuses payments to gays and lesbians?  Medicare that excludes people with disabilities?  Rand Paul would tell you that none of this would ever happen.  He’d tell you that liberals are out to distort his words and his record.  He’d tell you once again that he’s no racist.  But if you take his statements on the Civil Rights Act — his own words — and you combine them with his Libertarian views, what you get is an America none of us would ever want to see.

Think about it.

A Post About Fundamentals

Today’s post can be found at http://www.sfnovelists.com, the group blog on speculative fiction that I maintain along with a group of over one hundred published authors of fantasy and science fiction. The post is called “The Fundamentals.” I hope you enjoy it.

A Post About Movies and Books

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, and Stuart Jaffe, among others. The post is called “Of Movies and Novels,” and it compares the storytelling techniques used in books with those used in creating films. I hope you enjoy it.

New Interview Online

So our local paper, the Chattanooga Times-Free Press, interviewed me as a sidebar to their stories about the premier of the Robin Hood movie.  Here’s the site.  Not sure all the transcription is spot on perfect, but it’s pretty close.  The reporter was great — good questions, friendly guy.  Hope you enjoy the interview.

Lots of Stuff

Just a reminder that the big “Triple Launch” of Dragon’s Lure, Bad-Ass Faeries:  In All Their Glory, and New Blood is scheduled for May 30 at Balticon in Baltimore, Maryland.  My story, “The Dragon Muse” is in Dragon’s Lure, and the three anthologies together include stories from some of the most original voices in fantasy, SF, and horror.

For more information about the Triple Launch, visit this site.

Also, there is a new contest up on my web site, and this month’s prize is a copy of Dragon’s Lure.  So visit the site and maybe you can win a signed copy of the anthology.

Finally, the Magical Words crowd — Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, Stuart Jaffe, and yours truly — will be appearing at ConCarolinas/DeepSouthCon in Charlotte, North Carolina on  June 4-6.  We’ll be talking about writing, catching up with friends, and selling copies of our books, including Dragon’s Lure.  So come to the con and find us outside the dealers’ room.

A Post About Story Arc and Endings

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, and Stuart Jaffe, among others. The post is called “Writing Your Book, part VIII: Story Arc and Your Ending,” and it’s about how you tie off the narrative threads at the end of your book. I hope you enjoy it.