The journal and sometimes blog of author, Joseph L. Selby.
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NaNoing My Problem
When I finish revising a novel, I feel like the train from the climax of Back to the Future 3. Doc Brown threw in those special logs and now I’m going twice as fast as a normal train. Reall, that works for when I finish the novel the first time and when I revise it…
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Does Boston Make Me a Bad Writer?
Once upon a time, I had thought to craft a blog post entitled “The New Yorker’s Guide to the Rest of the Country.” Many of the agents whose blogs/tweets I follow not only work in New York but grew up there as well. They will then jet off to various parts of the country for…
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I Love My Company
The formula I always say for meeting colleagues in the publishing industry is to take the decade of a person’s age (I’m 33, so 3), subtract 1, and that’s the number of publishers that person has worked for. It’s amazing how accurate that formula is. Publishing is incredibly incestuous in its hiring practices, we list…
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What if Books Were Like TV
Following the recommendation of many, many people, I finally got around to renting the first disc of season 1 of “White Collar” (that’s the USA show that stars Chuck’s Bryce Larkin as a conman working for the feds). I have to say, the pilot really hooked me. It wasn’t as flimsy as I thought it…
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Clarification, Explanation
I changed my twitter profile recently from “I write.” to “I write in the morning. I make ebooks all day. I write in the evening. I do other stuff.” There was some confusion to this statement. It was presumed that I self-publish in ebook format, and that is not the case. I work for a…
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The Satisfaction of Success
I am a success! What? Did I get an agent? No. Did I get an offer of publication from a major publishing house? No. Did I get a date with Rosario Dawson? No. Yet I am still a success. I have not accomplished any of the above professional goals (and if I never accomplish that…
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The Importance of a Name
THE TRIAD SOCIETY is a pre-steam punk fantasy. What does that mean? That means steam technology is in its early advances. I don’t have airships or the like. I have steam-infused water and other similar “inventions!” Reliarach is the first kingdom on the Crescent Sea to develop such technology, the other six kingdoms being in…
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Redux: There is No Such Thing as Writer’s Block
Not quite sure why people are so much more willing to read blogger than live journal as one is just as easy as the other (other than displaying in reader, but we won’t get into an RSS feed discussion). Anyway, because it has reared its ugly head again, I feel inclined to repost one of…
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But this is what I do!
I went to lunch across the street, diligently working on the revision of TTS (Otwald is about to meet Crown Princess Klara, which will require some serious scrubbing). The owner’s wife brings out my food and sees me tapping away on my laptop. “No more work,” she says. “It’s time to enjoy ourselves!” I smiled…
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A Ponderance: What do you think is back there?
My good online friend and beta reader, LurkerWithout works nights at a hotel. Having held this job myself, I understand his psychological pain. To pass the time, he will occasionally doodle and share those doodles with the masses. (That’s you and me, in case you were wondering just who was amassed.) Today’s offering is worth…
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A Ponderance: How to Steal from the Greeks
You may have noticed Nate Wilson appearing here and there in the comments section. He’s a good bean. He’s a bean you’d use in your award-winning chili. He has his own blog. If you have not read it, you should. The footnotes alone make it worthwhile. Recently, he posted an explanation of why the blog…