Links

Here are a few good starting points for reading, writing, critiquing, research, and market information. Since I write fantasy, you will notice that most of these links are biased toward speculative fiction. Follow them and you will find more general ones listed.

Writing Organizations, Publications, & Communities

• SFWA (SFWA's online presence)
• SFF.NET (sff/h writers & readers)
• The Fix (reviews of sff/h short fiction)
• Locus (Locus magazine's online presence)
• Deep Genre (Writing and Reading. Commerce and Art. Fantasy and Reality. Science Fiction and the Mundane. Discuss.)
• Miss Snark (A Literary Agent, Archives)
• Absolute Write (Forums for Writers)

Online Workshops

• Codex
• Holly Lisle's Forward Motion
• Online Writing Workshop
• Orson Scott Card's Hatrack Workshop

In-Person Workshops

• Clarion East (at UCSD)
• Clarion South
• Clarion West
• Odyssey
• Viable Paradise

Research

• Epicurious (fabulous recipes for your stories)
• Language Dictionaries and Translators
• Milieux (costume site with more links)

Market Info

• Agent Query
• Bewares and Background Checks
• Duotrope
• Ralan's Webstravaganza
• Rejection/Acceptance Log
• Story Pilot

Book & Anthology Markets (a sampling)

• Apex Book Company
• Baen Books
• Bantam Spectra
• Circlet Press
• DAW Books
• Del Rey
• Nightshade Books
• PS Publishing
• Solaris Books
• Tor Books
• Wheatland Press

Magazine Markets (a sampling)

• Apex Digest Online
• Asimov's Science Fiction
• Baen's Universe
• Black Gate
• Black Static
• Clean Sheets (erotica)
• Electric Velocipede
• Fictitious Force
• Ideomancer
• Interzone
• Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
• Lone Star Stories
• Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
• Postscripts Magazine
• Realms of Fantasy
• Strange Horizons

Books

When I first started writing, I searched out books on writing. So many are nothing more than lists: warning signs, common prose mistakes, exercises, or the author's favorite plot formula. The best books, I found, are those that give me some important insight into the process and larger elements of writing. Of course, the basic guidelines themselves are worth reading about.

Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott

Survival techniques for the daily struggle, including important concepts for finding and keeping your perspective.

Steering the Craft, Ursula K. Le Guin

About the elements of narrative, both for writers working alone or for writers' groups.

The Art & Craft of Novel Writing, Oakley Hall

A concise and practical treatment of the basic techniques for good writing.

The Elements of Style, Strunk and White

Rules of usage, style, and composition