Reading: The Wannoshay Cycle by Michael Jasper
Music: Pete Seeger
TV/Movie: Futurama: The Beat With a Billion Backs
Link o' the Day: Chronicles of the Garden Variety Writers

So I'm in the market for a writers group. As I'm writing more and more, I'm thinking that the structure of a group could only be beneficial at this point both in keeping me writing on a set schedule and keeping my head in a good fiction-writing sort of place. I've been doing a lot of non-fiction commentary and review sort of stuff lately, but I need to take the fiction horse and give that one a good workout.



Writers groups are such hit-and-miss things sometimes. I tried one years ago in Warwick but was disappointed to learn that it was fairly hostile to anything that smacked of genre-writing. Seeings how I identify myself as a science fiction writer, I knew this was not going to be a good fit, so I dropped out pretty quickly. I've gotten good feedback with the Critters group, but if I go with an online group, I think I'd prefer a smaller, more intimate group.

Ideally I'm looking for a real-world, real-time local group. I think the face-time and coffee-sipping community feel is a good energy thing that could be both inspirational and just pleasant. I find myself getting involved in more real-world social things as time goes on which surprises me after having cultivated such a hermit lifestyle for so many years. I also note that many writers I know have benefited greatly from being part of a supportive community of writers. Got to get me some of that.

But it doesn't have to be real-world, real-time. On-line works as well. Hell, 90 percent of my business is conducted with people I have never met in person. Some of these business relationships go back many years. Hell, my partner at TumbleTap, Ben Ohmart, I've known for nearly ten years and we have never met in real life. He and I have maybe spoken on the phone half a dozen times. I think we now get a perverse pleasure out of this. We've been as close as fifty miles to one another, and never closed that gap. We've met mutual acquaintances...authors we've worked with together..who find this odd.

But the point being, the writing group I'm looking for can be on-line. With e-mail, instant messaging, facebook, and other facets to the Interweb--this is almost as good as being there.

Oh, and a writing group that is receptive to poetry as well would be a plus.

Just sayin'.

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I'm knocking them out of the ballpark these days. The Nebula Awards Issue of the SFWA Bulletin is now approved for press and the first copies should appear at the Nebula Awards Banquet in Los Angeles in a couple of weeks. I did up a draft of the cover for a book about the Dead End Kids from Hollywood's 1930s. I doubt it will be the final cover, but it's a starting place and I think the overall concept will remain pretty much the same.

I've finished laying out a fascinating book called Character Kings: Hollywood's Familiar Faces Discuss the Art & Business of Acting by Scott Voisin. This contains a number of discussions on acting by faces you know you've seen on screen--but weren't the A-list stars. Folk like Clancy Brown (Buckaroo Banzai, Starship Troopers, Shawshank Redemption, Tobin Bell (Mississippi Burning, Saw I-V, GoodFellas), Paul Gleason (The Breakfast Club, Die Hard), Keith David (They Live, Platoon, Pitch Black, There's Something About Mary), Ronny Cox Deliverance, Beverly Hills Cop I & II, RoboCop, Total Recall) and many more. I think this book will be of great interest to all actors, both aspiring and working.



I've also recently finished a book on Design Integration for a British publisher, and am working on the edits for the monthly medical journal.

See what I mean about keeping on schedule? Today's work list is mostly just cover designs and working on book reviews. Everything is where it should be.

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Today's link calls back to my opening topic of writers groups. Back in 2002, Brian Plante created a fascinating, funny, and horrifying webjournal called Chronicles of the Garden Variety Writers about a writers group he was involved in. Well...that's all I should really say. You need to read it for yourself, and make sure you read it all. You may be surprised by your own reaction.

Cheers!