Item 1) I received my "Greetings from Fabletown, NY" postcard from Bill Willingham. You only get one if you write a real, paper letter to Bill. Remember those? One swell piece of news from him is that he's planning on returning to GenCon next year, along with a significant comic book writers track that he and Marc Tassin are working on. That's not what I write, but I'll be in the front row anyway. Bill's a great panelist.
Item 2) I've now read the first two Monster Hunter novels (Monster Hunter International and Monster Hunter Vendetta), the first Grimnoir novel Hard Magic, and I'm a third of the way through the second, Spellbound. Larry Correia sure knows how to make you turn a page!
One thing he sometimes does that violates conventional wisdom, or at least oft heard admonition, is "head hopping." That's switching point of view from one character to another mid-chapter if not mid-scene. The worry is that it can confuse the reader. So far, however, Larry seems to do it pretty seamlessly. I've not had the chance to study his technique yet because I've been too engrossed and turning those pages, but I'll try to back up sometime and analyze.
Item 3) I've completed about three fourths of the first draft of The Other Side of Space, and I can see the finish line. What a terrific feeling! I'm in that groove now where you've got all the parts laid out on the table, and you think you know how they're all going to fit together to make a beautiful, purring mechanism. Well, maybe not that beautiful for a first draft, and maybe growling instead of purring, but at least functional, and doing kind of what you'd visualized at the start. If you squint hard, and don't look at your original notes.
