Elizabeth Bear

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• Commented on There is no extra credit in science fiction.
  Not what I'm talking about. "Now, by extra credit, please note that I don't mean the things that I consider part of baseline professionalism in a writer: turning in a manuscript that is as clean and artistically accomplished as possible,...
• Posted There is no extra credit in science fiction. to Charlie's Diary
  I learned this from Robin Hobb, though I'm pretty sure she didn't realize that she was teaching it to me at the time: there is no extra credit in science fiction. By which I mean, one of the things...
• Commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  There is nothing not awesome about your post. I use Habitica too. It gets me to floss and do my physical therapy!...
• Commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  Oh yes. I have done technical writing, and journalistic writing, and one of the things that happened to me in both fields was that as my initial copy got cleaner, my drafting speed radically slowed. I was doing more of...
• Commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  I love the construction "hlepful," Charlie. Around my house, we say, "helpy," or use the construction, "Helping like kittens." Which has the added benefit of defusing the situation by making everybody giggle....
• Commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  I definitely agree that regular exercise and an improved diet make a huge difference in resilience and health outcomes. They certainly have for me!...
• Commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  I already publish both traditionally and independently, for what it's worth. I make far, far more money for much less work from the traditional publishing side of things. About 95% of my income comes from the trad side of things....
• Commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  Noblehunter @#3: YES I DID...
• Commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  I should say that the cookies in this case are potentially metaphorical: in the sense of dog biscuits. Some kind of reward system that the mammal brain learns to associate with the process of doing the work. I don't know...
• Posted Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules to Charlie's Diary
  Hey guys: Elizabeth Bear here, and I'm stopping by to talk about how even jobs we love can make us sick if we do them for too long without a break and with the wrong kind of rewards systems. I...
• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  Tim, There's this! http://hugonoms2015.wikia.com/wiki/Hugo_Nominees_2016...
• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  Argh! That should have been "but like much epic fantasy it takes a while to get going." It's actually a bit different from most other epic fantasy....
• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  I'm interested in the answer to this question too. I've read very little 2015 SF yet this year (I have a pile started now, though!). (I was on an award jury that lasted until Spring, and I got seriously burned...
• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  Actually, Steve, I hadn't seen that before--but Charlie and I have been discussing this both online and off since very early after the nominations broke, and have made similar statements in the past--here's mine, from April 5th: "There's a new...
• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  Ken, yeah. You can never have too many recommendation lists. Only too few....
• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  Ah, you misunderstand. The people who care enough to join the WSFS is exactly the group of self-selecting voters I was talking about. Nobody creditable has ever claimed that the Hugos are given out by any organization other than the...
• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  Hey, J. Carl-- To me, it becomes a slate at the moment when the organizer or organizers start urging their friends and contacts to vote for it as a bloc. Also, when the organizers start recruiting people from outside the...
• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  Yeah, I know. That makes me very, very sad....
• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  M Harold Page, This is exactly why I've adopted a shift in policy, and why I'm making my strategy public. Tit-for-tat (which is what Charlie is doing) and modified or generous tit-for-tat (which is what I'm doing, except it's a...
• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  Hey James-- Actually, voters like you are exactly the people the current Hugo nomination system is designed to accommodate. I would have loved to see the Gibson book on this year's ballot. It was excellent work, perhaps his best to...
• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  Charlie and I differ slightly on our response strategies. This year, I went with a blanket no-award vote for slated works, and I made that public. In the future, I'm going to tune that response, because of the "Human Shield"...
• Posted How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating.... to Charlie's Diary
  Hi ho, Elizabeth Bear here, coming to you with a special report from deep in the wilds of eastern central North America, just underneath the left end of that wobbly looking blue bit that looks kind of like a kersplotchy...
• Commented on Where Have All the Women Gone?
  Perhaps you've noticed that I've been occasionally commenting and occasionally guest blogging here for a number of years? No? Oh....
• Commented on Where Have All the Women Gone?
  Thanks for the feedback, Jay. I like to think I try to write a variety of male characters, as I try to write a variety of female characters, and a variety of trans and intersexed and asexed characters. When I...
• Commented on Where Have All the Women Gone?
  It's intriguing to me how many of the posts disagreeing with Judith's posit that women writers of SFF are often dismissed... commence their argument by dismissing one or more woman SFF writers....
• Posted Space Robot Sad Trombone to Charlie's Diary
  WARNING DANGER THIS COLUMN CONTAINS PATHOS, ANTHROPOMORPHIZATION, AND RAMPANT SENTIMENTALISM. If that bothers you, turn back now. I feel a great pathos for robots. Not just any robots, mind. But explorer robots. Brave little space robots. Voyager and Venera and...
• Commented on Obligatory author shilling.
  I have--used to have more of it, before I lived in Nevada--an accent that people from places not New England assumed was upper-class/educated, and which very, very good ESL speakers often identified as nearly-accentless ESL. My family is working-class to...
• Commented on Obligatory author shilling.
  Hey, James-- I usually use the other guys for books, myself. Ahem. But I was thinking of "Tango 'Til They're Sore." As the chord progression is within my limits and it seems thematically relevant....
• Commented on Obligatory author shilling.
  Hi, Olivier! The broken French is a very minor plot point in the book, actually. ;) And Karen's voice is intended to represent idiomatic dialect of a particular place and social class, yes....
• Commented on Obligatory author shilling.
  Audiobook forthcoming from Recorded Books. Right now, it's a standalone: there are no more under contract. If I get any more bright ideas, a sequel or series of sequels is a possibility, but it's not going to turn into a...