Ian Thomas Healy

Today marks the start of a new feature here on my blog - the Monday morning quarterback.  No, it's not football talk (although I am a fan of the game).  Instead, this will be me recapping the previous week as far as my writing goes.  I'm doing this in order to keep you all better informed at what I'm up to as well as holding myself accountable, because as we rush toward the new year, I ha

I met Kristen through blogging. I was very impressed with the way she marketed her book Homefront.  It seemed every time I turned around, she was doing another radio or television interview about it, or blogging about some new facet, or guest-posting somewhere, and I said "Wow, here is someone who really knows how to work the modern media."

Today I want to talk about something only marginally-related to writing. To appease my ultraconservative Republican boss, for the second year in a row the employees at my day job decided as a Christmas gift to send care boxes to overseas troops. Last year we shipped stuff to Iraq and this year we sent eight boxes of goodies to troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Hey, did you read "The Scent of Rose Petals" yet?  If not, you can catch it here.  After you read it, swing on by the Members Forum and let me know what you thought.  Oh, you're not a member?  Well, it's easy enough to register.

From xkcd:

I sold a story to Journal of a Thousand Faces! The magazine is on sale (and discounted!) RIGHT NOW if you follow the directions in the press release below. The story is called "The Scent of Rose Petals."

Press release follows:

Six times a participant, six times a winner.  My official NaNoWriMo word count at the time of submission was 63,006 words.  Blood on the Ice is not yet completed, but I anticipate finishing it early in December.  I will post the final update in the Members Only!

I met author Laura Resnick (like so many other people in the literary industry) at a writers' conference.  If you're beginning to think maybe you should attend one, you're right.  Anyway, I sat down and asked her if she was related to Mike Resnick, who wrote one of my favorite books ever--Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future.  It turns out he is her father.  She had some very interesting tales to tell about h

Everybody loves The Muppets, and Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody is perennially popular.  So what happens when they get mixed together?

The QueryTracker Blog had a brilliant post on 7 characteristics you really ought to have to get published.  I'm not copying the text here, but you should go read it.