List Your Way to a Better (Writing) You

My least favorite part of the process is…? Copyediting. Spelling has never been my strongpoint. I particularly have problems with homophones and compound words. Trying to catch all those little flubs is no fun at all. But copyediting is important. It’s what elevates a manuscript from armature to pro. It makes the story clean and

Short Story Sale!

I’ve just sold a sci-fi humor detective story to Galaxy’s Edge. My first story with this venue is set to appear in the September issue, so I’m very glad to have another one in the works. Happy dance time. ~Marina

The Quirks of the Slush Pile, P1

Ah, Wednesday. We meet again. As you probably know, I’ve been a first-reader for Waylines Magazine for several months now. Long enough to see some negative patterns in the submissions. Today I’d like to cover one of those negative aspects, and though this might be a discussion that’s a little rough on the ego, I

WotF Vol. 29 Cover

It’s a little after-the-fact, but the cover for Writers of the Future Vol. 29 has been released, and the book itself is available for pre-order! Anybody else hear Elton John in their head singing “Rocket Maaaaan” when they look at the cover?  The illustration is by wonderful Stephen Youll. You can pre-order a mass market paperback from

Penumbra Article

I’m still on hiatus, really I am.  Just wanted to pop in to let you know that I’ve got a short article on grounding the reader up at Penumbra’s blog. Hope you find it helpful! ~Marina

Updates on Submitomancy and The Submissions Grinder

These are the two Duotrope alternatives I introduced a few weeks ago.  That post is here if you’d like to familiarize yourself with it. Sadly, we’ve lost Submitomancy before its launch.  Its Indiegogo campaign was unsuccessful, meaning they did not receive the funding they needed to get off the ground. Though Submitomancy frequently posted aesthetically

Being SMART With Your Goals

Ok, I might be a little late here.  A goal-oriented post usually belongs at the beginning of January, not at the end.  But… I want to discuss setting real goals vs. setting non-goals.  You’d be amazed (or, perhaps not) at how many writers I’ve seen this month declare non-goals for 2013.  Non-goals don’t help anyone,

Writers of the Future and Blog Comments

It has been brought to my attention that though I talk a lot about the Writers and Illustrators of the future contests, and link to related things, I don’t often (if ever) link directly to the contest. Which is not particularly helpful if you’re new to this stuff and don’t know where to enter. So,

Progress Tracking

The stats page on the NaNoWriMo website is a wonderful, addictive tool. It has unquestionably boosted my productivity, and I couldn’t be more pleased. Now I’m on the hunt for a similar progress tracking tool that I can use year round. The points I find most attractive about the NaNoWriMo page include: *The bar graph

Of Profiles and Pitches

I open my email and find I have a new twitter follower. Cool. That’s a pretty rare event for me, seeing as I how I’m sitting at nobody status at the moment and I don’t go on following rampages looking for random hoards to follow me back. I like to visit followers’ profiles to see