It’s snowy out, the sort of snow I grew up with in Northern Indiana. A clumpy snow, a little wet, so it clings to branches in inch thick lines, making some more snow than branch. Last night I watched it drifting past the light in the parking lot, which illuminated a sphere of falling snow, like an open-air snow globe, the good kind without sparkles or glitter, just evocative white bits that make us think of quiet nights, growing quieter as the snow muffles sound.

Sometimes writers need to stop and look and figure out what makes a scene real, what distinguishes it from one of the many movie backdrops in our heads, so that when we recreate it or take a piece from it or somehow incorporate it into a piece of writing, we can convey that quality. Karen Joy Fowler mentioned that often the most unique detail of a landscape is one of the most transitory: a busker, the shape of a cloud, the noise of the rock concert next door. Right now it’s snow for me. So, I ask you – what’s the most evocative detail of your current landscape?

News and More Stuff from Chez Rambo

Hello folks!

Well, by now you know my big news, which is that my novelette Carpe Glitter is a Nebula Award nominee. I’m deeply honored to find myself in such fine company and absolutely twitter-pated to find out how many people have enjoyed it. The Nebulas are chosen by other writers who are SFWA members, and that makes this very meaningful to me. I will be at the conference that weekend.

If you’re not a SFWA member, but want some say in whether or not it appears on other ballots, it’s eligible for the Hugo Award and Locus Award in the novelette category and the World Fantasy Award in the novella category. You can see the cool banner that Meerkat Press did for me at the top of this newsletter.

If you’ve read the book and found it fun, please think about giving it a review or posting about it on social media!

Want to hear the first bit of it? Here’s a YouTube video.

In recent class news, I’m in the process of lining up classes for the April-June time frame, but will be taking most of April off due to travel and moving.

One new class I’d like to point you at is How Not to Feel Like a Failure in Your Writing Career with Jennifer Brozek, which talks about dealing with imposter syndrome, guilt, and other writerly frailties.

I’m excited to say Judith Tarr will be giving a workshop on how to write about horses on May 2, 9:30-11:30 AM Pacific time. I’ll post more details as soon as I have the full description but you can go ahead and reserve a slot if you know you’re going to want to attend.

Look for news of more upcoming classes soon – I’m hoping the list will include at least one with Seanan McGuire, plus I’ve got some other rad stuff in the works.

Here’s the complete list of live classes in March at the moment. Classes appearing for the first time are bolded.

• Writing and Gender with Cheryl Morgan, Sunday, March 1, 2020, 9:30-11:30 AM Pacific time
• Dunking the Reader in the Details: Toolsets for Creating Immersive Worlds with Cat Rambo, Sunday, March 1, 2020, 1-3 PM Pacific time
• Writing Your Way Into Your Novel with Cat Rambo, Saturday, March 7, 2020, 1-3 PM Pacific time
• Head Hopping and Head Hunting: Deep Point of View Writing with Tracy Townsend, Sunday, March 8, 2020, 9:30-11:30 AM Pacific time
• How Not to Feel Like a Failure in Your Writing Career with Jennifer Brozek, Saturday, March 14, 2020 9:30 am ““ 11:30 am Pacific time.
• Intro to Game Writing with Monica Valentinelli, Saturday, March 28, 2020 9:30 am ““ 11:30 am Pacific time

Remember that if you can’t make the live classes, there’s plenty of on-demand ones!

Along with chat server access and class discounts, Patreon supporters this month got:
◦    2 installments of serial novella BABY DRIVER, the pulp-y adventures of Patricia Savage and her five associates in 1930s America.
◦    Weekly online co-writing sessions on Wednesday mornings. If you’d like to join the next one, the link will be posted on Patreon and Discord. I will schedule at least one weekend one in March.
◦    A chance to participate in weekly goal-setting and check-in.
◦    Snippets included bits from Flowergod (SF story), The Butterfly Court’s Bathroom (fantasy story), (2) Because It is Bitter (SF near future novella), writing exercises from Fran Wilde’s Fantastic Worldbuilding class.

Want to join us in the Chez Rambo community? Here’s how.

Cat or Rambo Academy Stuff to be Aware Of If you find the 5 minute timed writing session video on Youtube useful, here’s a 10 minute one. Highlights from the online workshop on Writing Interactive Games from Kate Heartfield Twitter thread from Marie Brennan’s Writing Fight Scenes workshop If you’re a Patreon subscriber, here’s Installment 3 of Baby Driver. First episode of podcast If This Goes On Chez Rambo Community Links Priya Sridhar on Medium: OwlHouse Recap #5;  review of Fire on High, How to Train Your Dragon, the HTTYD Soundtrack, talking about getting published in Strange Horizons, and her story, Mr. Lieber Comes to Hirta, in Translunar Travelers Lounge Signal boosting for this excellent Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/apexpublications/invisible-threads-cutting-the-binds-that-hold-us Gaming D&D character sheets for gamers with dyslexia How to Write a Solo RPG Adventure (ht to Liz Danforth) Market News Closing March 3! Place to submit your fantasy or SF novel. New YA horror magazine (ht to Steve V on Discord Podcastle is looking for slush readers: https://twitter.com/PodCastle_org/status/1232330158494932993 Luna Station Quarterly is looking for volunteers Uncanny Magazine is open for poetry till March 6 For Writers and Readers How to Compare Yourself to Other Writers the Right Way (h/t Spiderlilly on Discord) How to effectively recommend things on Twitter (unsurprisingly, it’s aTwitter thread) N.K. Jemisin on writing guidelines (ht to Standback on Discord, here’s his followup) The Alpha Writers Workshop is open for apps through March 10 (ht to Nathan Lucas on Discord) Random  Rotate Your Owl (h/t to @stelmur on Twitter)

The January giveaway was for a signed copy of my new novelette, CARPE GLITTER and the winner was Gretchen (I’ve dropped you an email, Gretchen, let me know if you didn’t get it). This month I have stickers that will be going out to Patreon supporters – if you’d like one, drop me an e-mail with the address to send it to you! Happy writing! -Cat ... Read blog post Skip to content