Anger management and the coming apocalypse

When I was a college freshman, a close friend decided to record everyone on our dorm floor saying the one phrase she felt best captured his/her personality, the phrase they said most often. Mine? "I hate that. It bothers me."

Sigh. So flattering.

But, after a lot of thought, after going through most of the posts on RL LaFever's fabulous Shrinking Violets Promotions (a fabulous blog for all the introverted writers and artists out there), I've decided to change the name of my blog. Earth-shattering news this isn't, I know. But my own essentially rage-y nature is the reason I'm an author. Something irritates the sweet baby kitties out of me and I have to write about it, just to sort out my own feelings on the subject. Thus, the new name "Anger Management." In which I write about managing anger. Sometimes well. Mostly badly.

There's another thing I'm doing, and that's more blogging, more often. I'll be blogging here, and over at a new website eisforbook, about ebooks and the changes in the publishing business, or the publishing apocalypse, depending on your point of view. My first post here. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

As proof how ill-prepared I am for the "erevolution," I just learned how to put that follower widget thing on this blog. Awesome.

Highlights Foundation Whole Novel Fantasy Workshop

Highlights Foundation is now taking applications for our Whole Novel Fantasy Workshop that will take place May 1st through the 8th. Last year was the first year that the amazing Anne Ursu and I led this workshop, and I have to say, it was one of the best weeks I've spent with a group of writers. The thoughtful critiques, the intense discussions of craft, the immediate sense of camaraderie, the food, oh my goodness, the FOOD — awesome.

If you or someone you know has a completed fantasy manuscript — middle-grade or YA — and would like to spend a full week steeped in monsters and magic with fellow fantasy lovers, being inspiring and getting inspired, then this Whole Novel Workshop is for you.

Snorting the coffee out of my nose

Ursula LeGuin's response to Harpercollins' new "morality clause" in its publishing contracts.