QoD Stephen King on Vampires

"Here's what vampires shouldn't be: pallid detectives who drink Bloody Marys and only work at night; lovelorn southern gentlemen; anorexic teenage girls; boy-toys with big dewy eyes.

"What should they be?

"Killers, honey. Stone killers who never get enourgh of that tasty Type-A. Bad boys and girls. Hunters. In other words, Midnight America. Red, white and blue, accent on the red. Those vamps got hijacked by a lot of soft-focus romance."

---Stephen King, in the introduction of American Vampire (Scott Snyder {writer} and Rafael Albuquerque {artist}) comic book series collection.

QoD Selling books about enlightenment

Anyone who sells books about being 'enlightened' should first try that themselves, preferably with some kind of flame thrower aimed at their heads.   
       ----David Shaw (someone on Facebook)

QoD Elbert Hubbard on self-promotion

Everyone should advertise while they are alive. The man who does not advertise is a dead one, whether he knows it or not. Life is too short for you to hide yourself away mantled in your own modesty.
   ---Elbert Hubbard

Quote of the day: Writing and the Sports illustrated Swimsuit issue

A writing assignment for the swimsuit issue is a dream come true for the Sports Illustrated staffer. He grabs an exotic dateline and the guarantee that no one will read anything he comes up with.
---Bryan Curtis

Qod Stephanie Reisner on the importance of copyrights

As an author it frustrates me that people should think I should spend thousands of hours on a manuscript and then give it away freely to whoever wants it. Because I can live on air and my love for writing. lol! I say all challengers of [Intellectual Property and Copyrights] ...should put in 40 hours a week for 52 weeks producing reading material for the general masses (see how easy it is) and then just hand it away for free. It will never happen. I'm betting a lot of them wouldn't be so against IP if they actually had any or made a living as an artist. For some of us - that's what we do to survive and we do it well.

----Stephanie Connolly Reisner 

Qod Leon Uris on Discipline

"In order to be a good writer, you've got to be a bad boss. Self-discipline and stamina are the two major arms in a writer's arsenal."

---Leon Uris

QoD Writing rituals Philip Athans

About avoiding writing rituals at all costs:

"Rituals are excuses for avoiding work and creativity. If you think you can only write your notes in that lovely leather-bound notebook your boyfriend gave you and only when it's dark and only when it's raining, you're fooling yourself. Write anywhere, at any time."

---Philip Athans (The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction)

Neil Gaiman Eight Good Writing Practices

Neil Gaiman: 8 Good Writing Practices

1. Write.


2. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.


3. Finish what you're writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.


4. Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.


5. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.


6. Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.


7. Laugh at your own jokes.


8. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

From an article in The Guardian, which ended up in Gotham Writer's Workshop GothamGram

Quote of the day: Freelancing and panic

Being a freelance writer is interesting and not really a good thing for people who don’t enjoy a permanent sense of panic.---John Scalzi

I need to get back to this story

Here is a quote from a story that I hope to finish writing after the semester is over.

In the old days, we used to travel by couch and buggy, or maybe horse and buggy, horses, boat, or just on foot. There are some that believe that we used to (and still do) travel by fairy circle, stone hedges and by flying around on broomsticks. The latter has always puzzled me. Why would anyone trust their existence to a slender piece of wood with straw tied to the end? I do not care how strong of a candle you light, the rarity of the feathers that you tie onto it, or the awesome power of your charms; it is still just a stick being held up by the power of positive thinking. I will stick with mechanical means of travel, thank you no. Then again, given the security line and the reliability of pilots nowadays, going to a broom closet and selecting your own means of travel might be preferable if it wasn’t for the exhaustion that making a broom fly would result in.

Quote of the Day: Renard on Critics

Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.

--- Jules Renard

Quote of the day: Sedaris on Illusion of control

Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.
--- David Sedaris

Quote of the Day: Alcott on the worshipping grammar

Devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression.
--- Amos Bronson Alcott

Quote of the day: Arnold Lobel

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.

- Arnold Lobel

Inspiration from Anne Rice

Today is one of those low self-esteem days. I dread them because they tend to be counter-productive. For instance, I messaged someone back today that I could not imagine them publishing any article of mine---this is after they said that they would like me to consider writing something for them. *sigh* And I already treated a couple of compliments as if the speakers were merely humoring me.

So I really needed this bit of inspiration. It is from Anne Rice; she has a fanpage on Facebook.

All aspiring writers out there: know that we need you, we need your voice, your vision, your stories. Be brave. Go where the pain is; go where the pleasure is. Seek to create in words the world in which you long to live.

Quote of the day: Renard on literature

Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.

Jules Renard

1864-1910

Quote of the day: Dahlberg on motives for writing

Those who write for lucre or fame are grosser than the cartel robbers, for they steal the genius of the people, which is its will to resist evil.

Edward Dahling

1900-1977

American Author and Critic

Quote of the day: Myself on writing goals

The other day, I was writing a letter to a friend, and the truth about my writing goals came out. It is enough to make any writer with literary ambitions to spin like a top.

My goal is not to be a writer; my goal is to be a hack. I want to write "trash" and "nonsense" (as many people consider my chosen subjects), and mysteriously make a living while doing it. Nothing that I have ever written, and got paid upfront for (or shortly thereafter) will ever be considered great writing.

In other words, don't plan on me making my way into the literary magazines or the ranks of the classical writers (the ones that everybody must read in college literature) anytime soon.